Full Paper
Burning Characteristics and Thermochemical Behavior of AP/
HTPB Composite Propellant Using Coarse and Fine AP Particles
Makoto Kohga*
Department of Applied Chemistry, National Defense Academy, Hashirimizu 1-10-20, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-8686
(Japan)
e-mail: kohga@nda.ac.jp
Received: October 15, 2009; revised version: January 14, 2010
DOI: 10.1002/prep.200900088
Abstract
The burning rate of AP/HTPB composite propellant increases
with increasing AP content and with decreasing AP size. In addi-
tion, the burning rate can be enhanced with the addition of
Fe2O3. The burning characteristics and thermal decomposition
behavior of AP/HTPB composite propellant using coarse and
fine AP particles with and without Fe2O3 at various AP contents
were investigated to obtain an exhaustive set of data. As the AP
content decreased, the burning rate decreased and the propel-
lants containing less than a certain AP content self-quenched or
did not ignite. The self-quenched combustion began at both
lower and higher pressures. The lower limit of AP content to
burn the propellant with coarse AP was lower than that with fine
AP. The lower limit of AP content to burn was decreased by the
addition of Fe2O3. The thermal decomposition behavior of pro-
pellants prepared with 20–80 % AP was investigated. The de-
crease in the peak temperature of the exothermic decomposition
suggested an increased burning rate. However, a quantitative re-
lationship between the thermochemical behavior and the burning
characteristics, such as the burning rate and the lower limit of
AP content to burn, could not be determined.
Keywords: Ammonium Perchlorate, Burning Rate, Burning
Catalyst, Composite Propellant, Thermal Decomposition
1 Introduction
The burning rate of the AP/HTPB composite propellant
depends on the AP content. The burning rate decreases
as the AP content decreases, and propellants containing
less than a certain AP content self-quench or do not
ignite. Therefore, the propellants do not have self-sus-
tained burning. A lower limit of AP content to burn, fmin,
exists, and the fmin of the propellant with coarse AP is
lower than that with fine AP [1].
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The addition of a burning catalyst greatly affects the
burning rate characteristics of the propellant, and Fe2O3
is a good catalyst for an AP-based propellant. The fmin is
decreased by the addition of Fe2O3 to the propellant [2].
The main thermal decomposition temperature range of
the propellant is shifted to lower temperatures by the ad-
dition of Fe2O3 [2–6], indicating that Fe2O3 improves the
chemical reaction in the solid and/or gas phases of the
propellant [3, 7].
The burning process of the AP/HTPB composite pro-
pellant begins with the decomposition gases of AP and
HTPB being produced at the burning surface by the heat
feedback from a flame. These gases diffuse and mix in
the gas phase and finally burn. The combustion mecha-
nism of AP-based composite propellants has been investi-
gated for many years and is almost established [8]. How-
ever, sufficient experimental data have not yet been col-
lected in order to describe the combustion mechanism.
The possibility of self-quenched combustion for the
AP/HTPB composite propellant is dependent on complex
factors such as the AP content, pressure, particle proper-
ties, thermal conductivity, and thermal decomposition be-
havior. However, the experimental data to support a
mechanism and cause of the self-quenched burning have
not yet been obtained.
As mentioned above, the decomposition gases of AP
and HTPB are produced at the burning surface and the
burning of the propellant is maintained by combustion re-
actions of those decomposition gases. Therefore, the ther-
mal decomposition behavior of the propellant influences
the burning characteristics and is some of the causes of
the self-quenched burning.
TG–DTA is a popular method to investigate the ther-
mal decomposition behavior of materials and has been
used to investigate several kinds of propellants [1–6, 9–
57
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13]. In previous reports, the AP content of the propellant
was constant and the relationship between the decompo-
sition behavior and the burning characteristics for the
AP/HTPB-based composite propellants at various AP
contents has not been systematically investigated.
In this study, the burning characteristics and thermal
decomposition behavior of the AP/HTPB composite pro-
pellant using coarse and fine AP particles with and with-
out Fe2O3 at various AP contents were measured in order
to obtain an exhaustive experimental data set. Based on
this data, the relationship between the decomposition be-
havior and the burning rate characteristics of AP/HTPB
propellant was investigated. This paper is one of a series
revealing the cause of self-quenched burning of AP-based
composite propellant.
2 Experiment
2.1 Materials and Propellant Samples
Coarse AP (CAP) and fine AP (FAP) were used as oxi-
dizers in this study. CAP was prepared by grinding a com-
mercial AP for 5 min in a vibration ball mill. FAP was
prepared by the freeze-drying method [14]. The mean
particle diameters of CAP and FAP were about 110 and
4 mm, respectively.
The propellant samples were prepared with less than
80 % AP. HTPB was used as binder and was cured with
isophorone diisocyanate. 8 % of isophorone diisocyanate
was added to HTPB, and Fe2O3 was used as a burning
rate catalyst. First 1 % of Fe2O3 was added to the propel-
lant, and the propellant mixtures were then cured for 7
days at 333 K. The size of each strand was 10 mm in di-
ameter and 40 mm in length. The side of each strand was
inhibited by silicon resin.
2.2 Measurement of Burning Rates
The burning rates were measured in a chimney-type strand
burner, which was pressurized with nitrogen. The strand
burner was set in a temperature conditioner operating at a
temperature of around 290 K. The ignition of each strand
was conducted by an electrically heated nichrome wire at-
tached to the top of each strand. The propellant strand
was combusted in a pressure range of 0.5–7 MPa. The
burning phenomenon of the propellant was recorded with
a high-speed video recorder. The collected pictures were
used to measure the burning rates. Three lots of propel-
lants were prepared at the same AP content. It was judged
that the propellant could not combust when one of the
three lots of the propellants was self-quenched.
2.3 TG–DTA
The thermal decomposition behavior of the propellant
was investigated using TG–DTA over a temperature
range from 473–723 K. The equipment was operated with
a nitrogen flow (50 mL min1) and at atmospheric pres-
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M. Kohga
sure. Six different heating rates (b) were used: 1, 2, 5, 10,
15, and 20 K min1.
Generally, TG–DTA is carried out with a small quanti-
ty of a homogeneous sample. Reproducible TG–DTA
curves of the composite propellant were not obtained
with a small amount of sample because the propellant
was heterogeneous. The scattering in TG–DTA curves
was reduced by increasing the sample mass. The heat re-
leased in the exothermic decomposition increased with a
higher sample mass. When the sample mass was more
than 2 mg, the heating rate increased at the stage of the
exothermic decomposition, indicating that the rate was
not constant in the temperature range at the exothermic
decomposition. The sample masses were approximately
1.5 mg in this study. The TG–DTA measurements were
conducted more than four times for each sample. The
averages of the TG–DTA curves from the data were used
in this experiment.
2.4 Kinetic Analysis
The activation energy is an important thermal decomposi-
tion property, and can be estimated by TG with the
Ozawa-Flynn-Wall method [15–17] or determined by
DTA with Kissinger method [18]. As these methods do
not need to know the reaction order or the reaction
models, they are widely applicable. They quickly and
simply determine the activation energies directly from
TG–DTA data at several heating rates if the thermal de-
composition behavior of the material is within the appli-
cation of these methods. Because the activation energy
determined by these methods is the sum of the activation
energies of the chemical reactions and physical processes
of thermal decomposition, it is called the apparent activa-
tion energy.
The thermal decomposition of a solid is a heterogene-
ous reaction that is generated locally within the reactive
nucleus of a solid and then propagates to unreacted mate-
rial. The thermal decomposition of the composite propel-
lants involve multiple steps that are likely to have differ-
ent activation energies, but the reaction models have not
yet been determined. Some researchers have investigated
the activation energies of solid high-energy materials and
composite propellants with the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall and
Kissinger methods [6, 10–13]. Though the thermal decom-
position behavior of energetic materials and composite
propellants is very complex, these are useful methods for
determining the activation energy of the composite pro-
pellants.
In this study, the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall and Kissinger
methods were applied to determine the activation energy
of the decomposition process. Although differential scan-
ning calorimetry is preferred over DTA for activation
energy determination, DTA was used in our experiments,
because a differential scanning calorimeter was not avail-
able. The activation energies determined by the Ozawa-
Flynn-Wall and Kissinger methods are represented by Eo
and Ek, respectively.
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Burning Characteristics and Thermochemical Behavior of AP/HTPB Composite Propellant Using Coarse
According to the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall method [15–17],
Eo is determined by the following equation:
Eo d log b
¼ 2:19
R dTo1
where To is the temperature at a constant degree of con-
version and R is the gas constant. Eo can be calculated
from the slope of a plot of logb against To1 .
According to the Kissinger method [18], Ek is deter-
mined from the maximum rate condition which will occur
at the exothermic peak temperature, Tp, of the DTA
curves. Ek is represented by the following equation:
 2 
d ln bTp
Ek
¼
R dTp1
and the value of Ek can be calculated from the slope of a
plot of ln(bTp2 ) against Tp1.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Burning rate Characteristics
The burning rate characteristics of the propellants are
shown in Fig. 1. The burning rate was reduced with de-
creasing AP content. The propellants prepared with CAP
and containing more than 64 % AP burned in the pres-
sure range adopted in this study. The propellant contain-
ing 63 % AP self-quenched at 0.5 MPa, and the propellant
containing 62 % AP self-quenched between 5 and 7 MPa.
The burnable pressure range decreased with decreasing
AP content. The propellant containing 55 % AP burned
only between 1.5 and 2 MPa, whereas the propellant con-
taining 54 % AP did not burn in the pressure range
adopted in this study.
The propellants prepared with FAP and containing
more than 69 % AP burned between 0.5 and 7 MPa. The
propellant containing 68 % AP self-quenched at 0.5 and
7 MPa. The burnable pressure range was reduced with de-
creasing AP content. The propellant containing 63 % AP
Figure 1. Burning rate characteristics of: a) propellants with
CAP; b) propellants with FAP.
Propellants Explos. Pyrotech. 2011, 36, 57 – 64  2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
burned only between 2 and 3 MPa, but the propellant
containing 62 % AP did not burn in the pressure range of
this study. These results indicated that the fmin values of
CAP and FAP were 55 % and 63 %, respectively. The fmin
ð1Þ
of coarse AP was lower than that of fine AP, suggesting
that the combustion of the AP/HTPB composite propel-
lant was dependent on the AP content, pressure and par-
ticle size of AP.
The burning rate characteristics of the propellants with
Fe2O3 are shown in Fig. 2. The burning rate decreased as
the AP content decreased. The propellants prepared with
CAP containing more than 52 % AP burned, whereas
those containing 51 % AP burned only between 1 and
3 MPa. The propellants containing less than 50 % AP did
not burn in the pressure range adopted in this study (0.5–
ð2Þ 7 MPa). The propellants prepared with FAP containing
more than 35 % AP burned between 0.5 and 7 MPa,
whereas the propellant containing 30 % AP burned only
between 2 and 5 MPa. The propellants containing less
than 29 % AP did not burn in the pressure range used in
this study.
Figure 2. Burning rate characteristics of propellants with Fe2O3 :
a) propellants with CAP; b) propellants with FAP.
The fmin of the propellant with Fe2O3 is represented by
cfmin. The cfmin values of CAP and FAP were 51 % and
30 %, respectively. The lower limit of the AP content nec-
essary to burn was decreased by the addition of Fe2O3.
The difference between the cfmin and fmin values of the
propellant prepared with FAP was larger than that of the
propellant prepared with CAP, indicating that the dimin-
ishing effect of Fe2O3 on the lower limit of AP content to
burn became more significant as the size of AP particles
was decreased.
The relationship between the burning rate and the AP
content is illustrated graphically in Fig. 3. The burning
rate was reduced with decreasing AP content. The burn-
ing rates of the propellants with Fe2O3 were larger than
those of the propellants without Fe2O3 at all pressures.
For the propellant with CAP, the variation in burning
rate against AP content slightly increased with increasing
pressure and the variation of the propellant with Fe2O3
was slightly larger than that of the propellant without
Fe2O3.
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Figure 3. Relationship between burning rate and AP content:
a) propellants with CAP; b) propellants with FAP.
On the other hand, the variation of the propellant pre-
pared with FAP increased with increasing pressure, espe-
cially with higher AP contents. The variations in the
burning rate of the propellants with Fe2O3 were smaller
than those of the propellant without Fe2O3 and almost
constant with less than 45 % AP.
The AP content greatly affected the burning character-
istics of the propellant. The variation in the burning rate
against the AP content of the propellant prepared with
FAP was larger than that of the propellant prepared with
CAP. From the results described above, we concluded
that the burning characteristics of the AP/HTPB propel-
lants were affected by the AP size and content, combus-
tion pressure, and addition of Fe2O3.
3.2 Thermal Decomposition Behavior
For all AP samples, the cfmin value was smaller than fmin.
The cfmin values of the propellant prepared with CAP
and FAP were 51 % and 30 %, respectively. The TG–
DTA thermograms of some of the propellants containing
40–80 % CAP and 20–80 % FAP were obtained to investi-
gate the influence of the AP content and of the catalyst
on the decomposition behavior of the propellant.
The fmin values of the propellant with CAP and FAP
were 55 % and 63 %, respectively. Figure 4 shows the
TG–DTA curves of the propellants with 55 % CAP and
63 % FAP with and without Fe2O3. The endothermic peak
was observed at 514 K in the DTA curve due to the crys-
tal transformation of AP and followed by exothermic de-
composition. For the propellant containing CAP without
Fe2O3, the values of Tp at 1, 10, and 20 K min1 were 611,
643, and 665 K, respectively, and those for the propellant
containing CAP with Fe2O3 were 592, 634, and 651 K, re-
spectively. The Tp and the end temperature of the exo-
thermic decomposition decreased with decreasing b. At
constant b, the peak temperatures of the propellant with
Fe2O3 were lower than those of the propellant without
Fe2O3.
For the propellant with 63 % FAP and Fe2O3, the exo-
thermic peak was not observed on the DTA curve at b of
1 K min1 because the endothermic peak of the crystal
transition point of AP overlapped with the exothermic
60 www.pep.wiley-vch.de  2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
M. Kohga
peak of the propellant. Therefore, the Tp value could not
be determined. For the propellant with FAP without
Fe2O3, the values of Tp at 1, 10, and 20 K min1 were 576,
643, and 656 K, respectively, and those for the propellant
with Fe2O3 at 10 and 20 K min1 were 540 and 555 K, re-
spectively.
Based on the TG curves, most of the consumption oc-
curred between the beginning and end temperatures of
the exothermic decomposition. The mass loss at the end
temperature of the exothermic decomposition decreased
with decreasing AP content. As mentioned above, the Tp
and the end temperature of the exothermic decomposi-
tion were shifted to lower values with the addition of
Fe2O3 and decreased with decreasing b. Therefore, the
TG curve was also affected by the value of b and the
presence of Fe2O3, even when the AP content was con-
stant.
Figure 5 illustrates the relationship between Tp and the
AP content. Tp decreased with decreasing b. At constant
b, the values of Tp were almost constant, except for the
propellant with FAP and without Fe2O3, for which the
values of Tp below 28 % FAP were lower than those
above 29 % FAP.
The value of Tp of the propellant with FAP was lower
than that of the propellant with CAP, and Tp was de-
creased by the addition of Fe2O3. For the propellant with
FAP, the maximum decrease in Tp by the addition of
Fe2O3 was 105 K (at 40 % FAP), whereas it was 33 K (at
73 % CAP) for the propellant with CAP. The difference
in Tp of the propellant with FAP was greater than that of
the propellant with CAP. The increase in the burning rate
of the propellant containing FAP by the addition of
Fe2O3 was larger than that of the propellant containing
CAP, as shown in Fig. 3. The decrease in Tp suggested an
increased burning rate when Fe2O3 was added to the pro-
pellant. However, a quantitative estimation of the in-
crease in the burning rate could not be established with
the change in Tp in this experiment.
As mentioned in Section 3.1, the burning rate de-
creased with decreasing AP content. The fmin values of
propellant with CAP and FAP were 55 % and 63 %, and
the cfmin values of the propellant with CAP and FAP
were 51 % and 30 %, respectively. At constant b, the
value of Tp was independent of the AP content and did
not change at fmin and cfmin, indicating that Tp was not di-
rectly dependent on the burning characteristics.
3.3 Kinetics of Thermal Decomposition
Sell et al. [10] measured the Eo values of the AP/HTPB
propellant with 70.25 % AP by the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall
method and reported that Eo was about 100 kJ mol1
below a degree of conversion of 0.08 and was between
175 and 200 kJ mol1 at degrees of 0.2–0.6. Therefore, the
variation in Eo was small for a degree of conversion of
0.2–0.8. The consumption at the main thermal decomposi-
tion decreased with decreasing AP content, and the mass
loss of the propellant with 20 % FAP was approximately
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Burning Characteristics and Thermochemical Behavior of AP/HTPB Composite Propellant Using Coarse

Figure 4. TG–DTA curves of propellant: a) with 55 %CAP; b) with 55 %CAP and Fe2O3 ; c) with 63 % FAP; d) with 63 % FAP and
Fe2O3.

30 %. In this experiment, the Eo values were determined
at degrees of conversion of 0.25–0.5.
To calculate Eo, logb was plotted as a function of the
To1 values obtained from the TG curves. Representative
Ozawa-Flynn-Wall plots are shown in Fig. 6. For each AP
content, the plots roughly followed the form of Eq. (1),
and displayed an approximately linear relationship. The
slope of the line was calculated from these plots, and Eo
was calculated by substituting the slope into Eq. (1).
Figure 7 shows the influence of the AP content on Eo.
The value of Eo increased with increasing AP content,
and the relationship was not affected by the addition of
Fe2O3. The variation in Eo against the AP content of the
propellant with CAP was larger than that of the propel-
lant with FAP. The Eo value slightly depended on the size
of AP, whereas the presence of Fe2O3 hardly influenced
Eo.

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Full Paper M. Kohga

Figure 5. Relationship between Tp and AP content: a) propellant using CAP; b) propellant using CAP with Fe2O3 ; c) propellant
using FAP; d) propellant using FAP with Fe2O3.

Figure 6. Ozawa-Flynn-Wall plots: a) propellant with CAP; b) Figure 7. Dependence of AP content on Eo : a) propellant with
propellant with CAP and Fe2O3 ; c) propellant with FAP; d) pro- CAP; b) propellant with CAP and Fe2O3 ; c) propellant with
pellant with FAP and Fe2O3. FAP; d) propellant with FAP and Fe2O3.

To calculate Ek, lnðbTp2 Þ was plotted as a function of straight lines for each AP content. The slopes of the lines
Tp1 values obtained from the DTA curves. Several Kis- were determined and Ek was calculated by substituting
singer plots are shown in Fig. 8, and exhibited almost the slopes into Eq. (2). Figure 9 shows the influence of

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Burning Characteristics and Thermochemical Behavior of AP/HTPB Composite Propellant Using Coarse
Figure 8. Kissinger plots: a) propellant with CAP; b) propellant
with CAP and Fe2O3 ; c) propellant with FAP; d) propellant with
FAP and Fe2O3.
Figure 9. Influence of AP content on Ek : a) propellant with
CAP; b) propellant with CAP and Fe2O3 ; c) propellant with
FAP; d) propellant with FAP and Fe2O3.
the AP content on Ek. The values of Ek for the propellant
with CAP and FAP were determined to be approximately
150 and 130 kJ mol1, respectively. The Ek of the propel-
lant with CAP was larger than that of the propellant with
FAP. These values depended on neither the AP content
nor the presence of Fe2O3. The Ek decreased with de-
creasing AP size, but was influenced by the AP content
and Fe2O3.
Propellants Explos. Pyrotech. 2011, 36, 57 – 64  2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Once Ek was determined, the values of pre-exponential
factor, A, were calculated with the equation:
bEk expðEk R1 Tp1 Þ
A¼ ð3Þ
RTp2
The values of A of the propellant containing CAP with-
out and with Fe2O3 were 1.0  109–7.2  1014 min1 and
9.6  1010–1.6  1014 min1, respectively. The A values of
the propellant containing FAP without and with Fe2O3
were 7.9  107–6.3  1013 min1 and 1.1  109–1.1  1013
min1, respectively. The value of A did not depend on the
AP particle size, AP content, or Fe2O3 in this study.
As described in Section 3.1, the burning rate increased
with increasing AP content, and at a constant AP con-
tent, the burning rate of the propellant with FAP was
higher than that with CAP. Furthermore, the burning rate
of the propellant with Fe2O3 was about twice that without
Fe2O3. The self-quenched combustion began at both
lower and higher pressures. The lower limit of AP content
to burn was dependent of the AP size and presence of
Fe2O3. In conclusion, the burning characteristics of the
AP/HTPB composite propellant greatly depended on the
AP content, AP size, pressure, and presence of Fe2O3.
For the AP/HTPB composite propellant, the decompo-
sition gases of AP and HTPB are produced at the burning
surface and the combustion of the propellant is sustained
by the burning of the decomposition gases. Therefore, the
decomposition behavior of the propellant should influ-
ence the burning characteristics.
Herein, an exhaustive experimental data set on the
thermal decomposition behavior of the AP/HTPB com-
posite propellant was obtained. However, the thermal de-
composition properties, such as Tp, Ek, and Eo, did not in-
fluence the burning characteristics, such as the burning
rate, fmin, or cfmin, within the limit of this study.
The burning rate was measured in the range of 0.5–
7 MPa, and the thermal decomposition behavior was in-
vestigated at atmospheric pressure. The heating rate of
TG–DTA was studied over the range of 1–20 K min1.
The thermal decomposition at the burning surface of a
propellant was more than 10000 times higher than that of
the TG–DTA heating rates. The thermal decomposition
behavior under rapid heating and high pressure should be
investigated further to explore the relationship between
the burning characteristics and thermal decomposition.
4 Conclusions
The burning characteristics and thermal decomposition
behavior of the AP/HTPB composite propellant using
coarse and fine AP particles with and without Fe2O3 at
various AP contents were investigated. As the AP con-
tent decreased, the burning rate decreased and the pro-
pellants containing less than a certain AP content self-
quenched or did not ignite. The self-quenched combus-
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