Calculation of theoretical performance of boron-based composite solid propellant for the future applications

Abstract

Elemental boron is a highly attractive high energy material and it is a metalloid chemical element. Boron possesses the second greatest heating value of any element that can be adopted as an energetic material in the processing of propellants and explosives. In the present work, boron-based composite solid propellants are examined theoretically. In the actual condition, boron has problems during the ignition and combustion due to the coating of B2O3 layer on its surface. The vacuum-specific impulse and the specific impulse are calculated for several boron-based propellants with the help of NASA Lewis Code, Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA). Several other elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium and titanium are also considered in this study as additives in boron-based propellants. The performance values of boron-based propellants are compared with that of pure aluminium-based composite propellant. In the CEA simulation hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) and ammonium perchlorate (AP) are taken as binder and oxidizer, respectively. Although pure boron-HTPB-AP has the highest theoretical performance, it is observed that presence of any small percentage of boron in aluminized propellant can give higher performance than that of pure aluminium-based propellant.