International Journal of Research Available e-ISSN: 2348-6848

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Effect of Additives on KNO3 based Solid Propellants

Prakhar Jindal
Department of Aerospace Engineering,
Amity University Haryana, Gurgaon.

ABSTRACT Apart from content of oxygen in KNO 3 it is

very cheaply available and can be
This paper involves the study of optimization of
manufactured in very less amount of time.
burn rate techniques. Addition of small amount of
inorganic and organic substances alters the burn Industrial production of KNO 3 is very
rate. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects inexpensive. It is like a conventional oxidize r
of additives on burn rate. Also optimization is done used from 80’s. Ammonium perchlorate is
using changing the composition of the reacting another latest and high oxygen content used in
species in the propellants. We used AP-PVC and the propellant. This study is based on
black powder based propellants for the Ammonium perchlorate and polyvinyl chloride
optimization. Additives, Al powder and Iron oxide propellant in which PVC acts as
were used in same propellants strand formulation. multifunctional substance as fuel as well as
These materials are generally used in 1-5% of
binder. This significant property made us to
amount of basic propellants by weight.
study the burn rate of these propellants and
Optimization of propellant was studied by
their optimization using some additives.
observing their burning characteristics of the
propellant. The result shows that burn rate increase Additives used here are Aluminium
for some additive and decrease with some additive powder of industrial grade and Fe2 O3 powder.
based on the composition of the additives and basic Use of these additives is based on their property
propellant. of heat absorption. Considering activatio n
energy of any reaction, if after taking the
I. Introduction activation energy from the environment gives
The basic thing of any propellant is more energy in the combustion then it is
computation of burn rate before its use and it is suitable for the addition in the basic propellant
helpful in further calculation. This paper formulation. Since metal have the above
describes the optimization of burn rate of described property, they are used for the burn
specific propellants based on potassium nitrate rate optimization and Aluminium contains
(KNO 3 ) and Ammonium Perchlorate. Since three electrons in its outer shell and thermal
these compounds contain a high amount of property is low i.e. low melting point. These
oxygen content, the study is constrained to this characteristic features lead this metal for
oxidizer in the above propellant only. KNO 3 is distinguishing burning and use in the
a neutralized salt from nitric acid that has very propellants as an additive.
high oxidizing power and any potassium base Burn rate empirical formula was given by;
say potassium hydroxide and Ammonium 𝑟 = 𝑎𝑃 𝑛
perchlorate is a derivative of perchloric acid
that also contain high percentage of oxygen. where, r is the burn rate

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 International Journal of Research Available e-ISSN: 2348-6848
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a is proportionality constant Selection of propellants

P is the chamber pressure Our study is focused in the burn rate of
n is Pressure index Black powder, sugar based propellant and
II. Literature Review Ammonium perchlorate propellant. The
S.R Jain [11] presented a study about the selection criteria for these propellants include
different binders used in solid propellants based the following points
on the property of binding and environme nta l
concern. He proposed AP is a good binder and  Economy
fuel but only disadvantage of thus is formatio n  Availability
 Amount of Oxidizer content
of HCl gas during oxidation of AP which is a
 Amount of fuel content
harmful gas. The first sugar rocket was made  Amount of solid materials residue after
by colburn in 1947[12] Gordon and McBride in combustion
1974 said that burn rate is altered by  Reaction temperature
combustion instability inside the combustio n  Amount of exhaust gases
chamber. K Kishore et.al [13] worked on the
These criteria make the study more easy
ignition delay of AP propellant. He has given
and link to the recent use of rocket propulsive
empirical relation on the basis of concentratio n
fuels Casted in another plate as describes
of propellant. He proposed ignition delay is
above, and cut in strands of same dimens io ns
inversely proportional to 2.32th power of
as above.
concentration of oxidizer below 65% and at a
temperature of 595K, Also it is inverse ly Assortments of these chemicals are done
proportional to 1.14th power of concentratio n on the basis of comparative study of their
above 65% of oxidizer. Krishnan, [14] properties. Black powder is the basic and
described that the procedure of mixing of conventional explosive used in Indian history
additives in the propellant also plays great role and has very high burn rate. It consists of
in determining the burn rate. Bozic v.[15] charcoal and sulfur mixed with potassium
worked on Ammonium perchlorate based nitrate.
propellants and its derivative and found out that
basic ammonium perchlorate with PVC gives Ammonium perchlorate, a salt of
burning rate of 3 mm per second(averaged). perchloric acid containing high amount of
oxygen that can be used as an oxidize r.
After going through the literatures certain Polyvinyl chloride acts as fuel and binder as
research gaps are as follows: well that is also cheaply available. These
special properties of species make us to choose
 Optimization of burn rate using additives.
it as a propellant in our study.
 Chemical effects of additives on the burn
rate of propellant.
Propellant Processing
 Compatibility of different additives with
different compositions of propellant.
III. Methodology

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The reactions taking place in the obtained. In order to remove the excessive
propellant are given under as for black powder water, numbers of clusters from the clayey
is paste is made and are allowed for soaking using
the soaking paper. After the excess water is
16KNO 3 +6S + 13C 5K 2 SO4 + 6N 2 + K2 S + removed then the casting of the propellant is
11CO 2 done in the appropriate container.
Reaction of ammonium perchlorate as Smaller the particle size of combining
combustion is species better will be the combustion. This
NH4 ClO4 HClO 4 +NH3 2O2 +HCl mixture is carefully made into strands of
standard size as discussed above, such that no
Ammonium perchlorate a salt of per air bubbles should trap in the propellant. Air
chloric acid and ammonia gas was mixed with trapped will alter the burn rate as presence of
a binder PVC i.e. polyvinylchloride and mixed extra air will provide extra oxygen and less
with demoisturised di-butyl phthalate as a propellant.
plasticizer. After mixing the species according
IV. Results and Discussion
to required number of moles it was stirred
This section deals with the graphica l
thoroughly for 3-4 hours continuously. 8-10%
representations for the results obtained from the
of plasticizer was added to make the mixture
above experimentations. These results will be
able of stirring at initial stage but since it is
used for the explanations regarding the burn
volatile we had to use 30-40% of plasticizer for
rate for the propellant combinations with
the stirring purpose. The mixture was carried to
certain additives.
next stage casting, making strands and for the
curing about 100°C in the oven for 20 hours
and finally taken out as strands of above
dimensions.

The preparation of the gunpowder starts

with obtaining a fine mixture of all the
components such as Potassium Nitrate,
Charcoal and Sulfur. To obtain the fine mixture
of the components ball milling process for each
component is carried out. After this process the
required amount of components as Potassium
F ig.1 Burn rat e of Black p ow der w it h addit ives
Nitrate (75%), Charcoal (13%) and Sulfur
(12%) is taken and mixed properly .After the Fig.1 represents the burn rate of black
mixing process, water (8%) is added in a step powder along with the addition of different
wise manner along with the mixing of the additives. From the following graph we can
propellant is done until a thick clayey paste is analyze that the burn rate of the black powder

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 International Journal of Research Available e-ISSN: 2348-6848
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is maximum when aluminium is replaced by

fuel for 2 percent but upto some extent after
which even increase in the additive decreases
the burn rate of the propellant. In case of the
additive as Fe2 O3 the burn rate is maximum for
1 percentage in place of fuel. From this graph
we can study that the burn rate of propellant
increases for only a certain amount if additives
added after it even decreases as of normal
F ig.3 Burn rat e comp aris on of Black P ow der w it h
propellant.
addit ives

The above graph represents the burn rate

comparison for Black powder with different
additives. According to above graph, it can e
seen that the burn rate is high for the propellant
with Al additive as compared to that of the
Fe2 O3 . The reason leads with the presence of
more number of electron at the outer orbit or
shell as compared to Fe2 O 3 which makes Al
more reactive than Fe2 O3. Other reason may
F ig.2 Burn rat e of P VC/A P w it h addit ives
lead Al being a single or neutral element and
Fig.2 represents the burn rate of PVC/AP Fe2 O3 being compound, hence making it more
along with the addition of different additives. element.
From the following graph we can analyze that
the burn rate of the PVC/AP is maximum when
aluminium is replaced by fuel for 2 percent but
upto some extent after which even increase in
the additive decreases the burn rate of the
propellant .In case of the additive as Fe2 O3 the
burn rate is maximum for 1 percentage in place
of fuel. From this graph we can study that the
burn rate increases if we add additives with the
normal composition for some extent but after F ig.4 Comparison of Burn rate of PVC/AP with additives
which the increase in the additive doesn’t affect
This graph signifies the burn rate of
the burn rate characterization of the propellant
PVC/AP for different additives. The reason
instead it decreases further with increase in behind is the presence of more number of
additives. electrons at the outer orbit of aluminum than
that of the Fe2 O3. From the following

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comparison it can be seen that burn rate of Al [7] Sidhant Singh; “Solid Rocket Motor for
is higher of PVC/AP than the Black powder. Experimental Sounding Rockets”, Univers ity
of Petroleum and Energy Studies Dehradun,
V. Conclusion India.
 Burn Rate of propellants increases with [8] David Newey, “Optimization of ammonium
addition of the additives such as Al and nitratesolid rocket fuel”, Brigham Young
Fe2 O3 .
University – Idaho, December 2013
 The increase in the burn rate of propellant
with the addition of additives is limited to [9] Burning rate control factoring solid
some extent, after which the burn rate propellants Eleventh & Twelfth Quarterly
decreases with increase in additive. Technical Summary Report. For the Period 1
 Burn rate of both the propellant is higher July 1961 to 31 December 1961
when Al is added as an additive in normal
composition as compared to Fe2 O3 addition. [10] Bozic Effects of Burning Rate Modifiers
on the Modified Polyvinyl Chloride-Based
 In case of PVC/AP it gives higher burn rate
Propellants. Ministry of Environment and
when Al is added as additive as compared Spatial Planning, Belgrade, Serbia.16-18 June,
to Black Powder 20
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Mohammad Nazri Mohammad Inclusion of KNO3/Sugar Propellants ”,
Jaafar,”Experimental Solid and Liquid
October 4, 2002
Propellant Rocket Development” ,Univers ity
Technology Malaysia : 1992-2011 [13]K. Kishore and S.Sankaralingam “Studies
on the Pyrolysis of Composite Solid
[2] Ian von maltitz,” Black powder Propellants leading to Ignition” July 19
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[14] Krishnan, S.; Swami, R. D. Effect of
[3] Dr. Abhijeet Singh, “Sugar Based Rocket Catalyst Mixing Procedure on the Combustion
Propulsion System- Making, Analysis & of AP/HTPB Solid Propellants. Journal of
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[4] Sutton and biblarz; “Rocket propulsio n
[15]Bozic. V” Effects of Burning Rate
elements” Modifiers on the Modified Polyvinyl Chloride-
[5] A.K Chatterjee; “Combustion studies of Based Propellants” International Conference
aluminized PVC plastisol” on High Energetic Materials and Dynamics of
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[6] A.R Kulkarni, K.C Sharma;” Burn rate Bulgaria;june 2010.
modeling of solid rocket propellant”

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