Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Heat of Combustion of RDX-based Propellants

The main goal of the present work was to check whether it is possible to use a thermochemical model to predict the heat of combustion of new RDX-based propellants and to determine which calculation conditions ensure that the calculated heat obtained is close to the calorimetric value. Calorimetric measurements of the heat of combustion of selected new RDX-based propellants were carried out and their combustion characteristics were also obtained by thermochemical calculations. The combustion heats determined experimentally and theoretically were compared. On the basis of an analysis of the results obtained, the influence of the temperature of “freezing” of the composition of the combustion products on the calculated combustion heat was checked. The ballistic parameters of the tested propellants were also calculated.