Propelan pepejal kalium nitrat difabrikasi kaedah pengacuanan mampat

Abstract

Solid propellant used on solid fuel rocket developed at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is from the composite propellant group with potassium nitrate as the oxidizer and sucrose as the fuel. Among the propellant fabrication techniques are forming, extrusion, casting and compressed moulding. All of these techniques are used to fabricate several types of propellant with different characteristics and performances. Depending upon the technique of fabrication, these propellants have shown strong relationship with their mechanical properties. With every technique, the propellants are formed according to a standard shape and dimension. Burning rate tests were performed for each propellant strand fabricated using the test rig designed. The burning rate tests were performed at atmospheric pressure. Through this test, the propellant burning rates were obtained. Experimental results show that the burning rate for propellant developed using forming and compressed moulding are 1.033 cm/s and 0.429 cm/s, respectively. Meanwhile, the extrusion and casting methods were found not suitable due to the property of potassium nitrate-sucrose that is viscous. Experimental results show that the pressed moulding method is the most suitable method compared to the other techniques since it can produce propellant that is uniform and stable.