Combustion Characteristics of AP Based Solid Rocket Propellant: Propellant Selection, Fabrication and Testing

There were many studies on ammonium perchlorate (AP) based solid rocket propellant and some data already existed. However, there is no complete data available in Malaysia especially on the information of combustion characteristics of baseline data of AP based SRP. This monograph discusses on the combustion characteristics of AP based SRP including the methods of the propellant selection and fabrication, burning rate test and static thrust test. Thirteen sets of different propellant mixture were prepared with consideration of the mechanical and processability factors. The propellant was a mixture of AP as an oxidizer, aluminum (Al) as fuel and hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as binder/fuel. By varying the AP and Al, the effect of oxidizer-fuel (O/F) ratio on the whole propellant was determined. The propellant strands were manufactured using press-molding method and burned in a strand burner to obtain the initial burning characteristics. This monograph suitable for those who interested to get better understanding in AP based solid propellant.

Mr. Aziz is a graduating MSc. student (2011) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) specializing in solid propellant. He is a faculty member at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). His research is on rocket propulsion. Mr. Wan Ali is a professor from UTM. His research includes rocket propulsion, antenna and propagation.