Effect of Tetracycline in Improving Composite Propellant Pot Life

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistance Professor, Chemical Engineering Dep., Karary University, Sudan.

2 Associate Professor, Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, Karary University, Sudan.

3 Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering Dep. , Karary University, Sudan.

Abstract

Propellant mixing and casting processes are the most complex and important operations in composite propellants manufacturing. They are affected by the rheological properties of the propellant. Casting process of composite propellants is influenced directly by its pot life. The short pot life of the propellant formulations can result in low reliability and
increase the processing cost [1]. The propellant pot life is defined as the time available for accomplishing the processing steps of mixing and casting propellant before the propellant loses its fluid nature [2]. Different methods have been proposed for improving composite propellant process by extending its pot life using some affected chemical materials. This work concentrated on using the well-known antibiotic (tetracycline) to achieve this objective. When tetracycline added to the propellant formulation, the pot life was extended by a considerable time ranged between two and four hours. This extension referred to the solution which tetracycline offered to the problem that occurs from using transition metal materials (ferrocene compounds) in the propellant slurry to improve the burning rate. This addition of ferrocene compounds results in accelerating the curing reaction and so, shorten the pot life of the slurry. Tetracycline has good possibilities for metal complex formation and its activity depends on its metal binding function [3]. Moreover, tetracycline is cheap and available which let its use easier than other materials used for the same purpose. The results obtained
from this work can help the manufacturer in filling big rocket motors by use of small mixers by applying the above method of extending the propellant pot life.

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