Studies on Different Types of Nitrocellulose in Triple Base Gun Propellant Formulations

Currently triple base propellants are used for tank gun ammunition. Nitroguanidine (NQ) propellant is the most promising among them due to various advantages like low flame temperature, flashlessness, low barrel erosion, long shelf life, etc. Therefore, it will continue to be used in the field of gun propulsion systems for several years to come. However, there is scope for enhancing the performance of triple base propellant with respect to energy level and mechanical properties. Nitrocellulose (NC) is the energetic binder cum fuel used in the triple base composition propellant and constitutes a sizeable percentage of the compound. Hence, one of the promising triple base compositions was selected, and a systematic study was carried out by using different types of NC (having varying percentages of nitrogen content) to study the variation in mechanical properties, energy content, linear burning rate coefficient, and pressure exponent. The results are discussed in this paper.