Temperature-Insensitive Composite Propellants with Tunable Plateau Burning Using In-Situ Energetic Nanoparticles

This proposed SBIR Phase II program will develop and test a plateau burning, temperature insensitive composite propellant meeting the Navy's requirements to replace existing double base propellants in aircraft ejection seat systems. The Phase II project will build upon the Phase I effort, which demonstrated the feasibility of composite propellants containing a combination of chemical and nanoparticle additives to produce the desired performance characteristics. In Phase II, the propellant formulation will be optimized beginning with small scale tests measuring burning rates, safety, mechanical properties, and aging performance. The optimized propellant will be scaled up and tested in analog rocket motors to provide performance characterization under realistic operating conditions. The results will be used to develop a ballistic model to calculate the propellant performance in an end item device.