Twin screw extrusion processing of double base rocket propellant

Suzanne Prickett, William Newton, Stuart Richman, Wayne Thomas, Christopher Gonzalez, Dilhan Kalyon, Halil Gevgilili, Moinuddin Malik, Tugrulbey Kiryaman, James E. Kowalczyk

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rocket propellants are generally manufactured using dated technologies, which involve batch mixing and ram extrusion. This paper outlines various tasks involved in the development of die twin screw extrusion process for the state-of-the-art manufacture of double base propellants. These tasks include TGA and DSC analysis, the characterization of various material functions including temperature and wall shear stress dependent shear viscosity, extrudate swell, flow instability and wall slip behavior of the propellant, the simulation of the coupled flow and heat transfer occurring in the twin screw extruder, the design of the die employing FEM calculations, and validation experiments using a thermal imaging camera and a well-instrumented twin screw extruder. Such characterization and simulation tasks are essential to the safe processing of energetic materials, which can be accomplished without the use of precarious trial-and-error procedures.

Original languageEnglish
Pages3159-3186
Number of pages28
StatePublished - 2004
Event2004 AIChE Annual Meeting - Austin, TX, United States
Duration: 7 Nov 200412 Nov 2004

Conference

Conference2004 AIChE Annual Meeting
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin, TX
Period7/11/0412/11/04

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