Effect of catalysts on the burning rate of phase stabilized ammonium nitrate based composite propellants

The Ammonium Nitrate based composite propellants are widely used in the applications of tactical missiles and explosives due to its least toxicity and smokeless combustion. The main disadvantage of ammonium nitrate based propellants is its poor burning rate. Hence, it is required to enhance its burning rate for attaining a better performance. One of the several methods of upgrade the burning rate of composite solid propellants is the addition of catalysts to the propellant. The present study aims to investigate the effect of addition of transition metal oxides as the catalysts to the phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate based composite solid propellants and to study its thermal decomposition characteristics. (paper)