Thermal behaviors of RDX/AP/Al composite propellants by DSC and TG

Composite solid propellants are used widely in military and space industry. Ammonium perchlorate (AP) partial substituted by high energy explosive RDX and aluminum powder is one of the smokeless composite propellants with good energy performances. In this work, the thermal behaviors of four RDX/AP/Al composite propellants in different ratios of RDX and AP were researched by TG and DSC. The results show that the characteristic temperatures of thermal decomposition i.e. T_p, T_b and T_SADT, the kinetic parameters i.e. E and A are inverse proportional to the AP content. The thermodynamic parameters i.e. ΔH^≠, ΔS^≠ and ΔG^≠ also have relationship with the AP content. The interaction between AP and RDX plays a positive role in thermal decomposition of RDX/AP/Al composite propellants, and the acceleration gets stronger as the ratio of AP to RDX increases within a certain range.