Construction and Effect of New Mechanical Structure in Traditional Nitroguanidine Propellants

In order to improve the mechanical properties of nitroguanidine propellants, spheroidized nitroguanidine (SNGu) was mixed up with needle-shaped NGu (NSNGu) at different mass ratios. The results from tensile/compression tests showed that the addition of SNGu could improve compression properties of nitroguanidine propellants. At the NSNGu to SNGu ratio of 8:2, compression properties of the propellants exhibit an excellent promotion with the maximum increase of 25.2% at −40°C comparing against the value of the traditional propellants. Meanwhile, tensile properties of the new propellants at the same ratio were nearly equal to those of traditional propellants. The impacts of the morphology of NGus on the distribution density and orientation of the NGus were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The aforementioned mechanical behavior of nitroguanidine propellants could be well explained by the results of closed-bomb tests. The difference of the total heat effect observed in the Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) tests of the two NGus was calculated to be only 1.5%.