Smokeless solid propellants performance in various grain configurations for a missile application

Propellants are substances that release chemical energy and support a flight system like missile to propel forward, thus playing a major role in defense sector. Combustion chemistry of any propellant matrix reveals different chemical species, emissions promoting visual signatures as well as pollution hazards. This paper studies about minimum signature smokeless propellant, its primary characterization, and preliminary evaluation of performance trends with conventional solid propellants and grain configurations existing today. Characteristic features of these propellants are independent of acidity, solid particles, lead, smoke, pollution and exhibit a faint smoke trail. Without bright flame and dense smoke trail produced by burning aluminized propellants, these propellants cannot reflect the firing location of any missile and tracking by enemy radar. This research relates to propellant formation and plastic bonded explosive compositions, which offer increased performance with absence of halogen-based oxidizers. In this paper, efficiency of smokeless propellants is studied for different grain geometries.