Resonant Acoustic Mixing of Solid Rocket Motor Propellant to Minimize Property Variations

Current mixing and casting procedures result in unwanted gradients in solid rocket motor (SRM) material properties with subsequent ballistic property variations.  Resodyn Corporations¡¦ ResonantAcoustic¥ mixing (RAM) technology is poised to revolutionize the design, development and production of SRM¡¦s.  RAM technology has the unique capability of rapidly mixing high solids propellant without using the high levels of shear that contribute to non-uniform material properties of the SRM¡¦s that are currently produced.  Additionally a method to eliminate knit lines and reduces the number steps needed to fabricate an SRM is proposed.  This proposal demonstrates the effectiveness of using RAM to mix composite propellants, both inert and Class 1.3, at both laboratory scale and engineered demonstration motor scale, and will develop a predictive model of mix effectiveness when using the RAM technology. BENEFITS: RAM technologies will have significant impact at all levels of the SRM industry from laboratory development work, to engineering prototype motors, and into qualified production programs.  This technology dramatically reduces production cycle times and reduces the significance of propellant formulation uncured viscosity that currently dominates mixing procedures.  When the RAM technology is integrated into all levels of the SRM industry, the inherent benefits of using RAM technology will allow for improvements in ballistic performance, insensitive munitions/safety, long term aging and reduced production costs.