Research Progress and Key Issues of Hydrodebenzylation of Hexabenzylhexaazaisowurtzitane (HBIW) in the Synthesis of High Energy Density Material Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (HNIW)

High energy density materials (HEDM) are the subject of an extensive research effort in relation to the use of these compounds as components of rocket propellants, powders, and formulations of high-performance explosives. Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (HNIW, i.e., CL-20) has received much attention in these research fields for its specific impulse, burning rate, ballistics, and detonation velocity. In this paper, the development and performances of the explosives from the first to the fourth generation are briefly summarized, and the synthesis status of the fourth-generation explosive, HNIW, is reviewed. The key issues that restrict the development of industrial amplification synthesis of HNIW are analyzed, and the potential directions of development are proposed. It is pointed out that to synthesize new and efficient catalysts is the key to making the cost-effective manufacturing of CL-20 a reality.

Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-thermal propulsion

The application of directed energy to spacecraft mission design is explored using rapid transit to Mars as the design objective. An Earth-based laser array of unprecedented size (10-m diameter) and power (100 MW) is assumed to be enabled by ongoing developments in photonic laser technology. A phased-array laser of this size and incorporating atmospheric compensation would be able to deliver laser power to spacecraft in cislunar space, where the incident laser is focused into a hydrogen heating chamber via an inflatable reflector. The hydrogen propellant is then exhausted through a nozzle to realize specific impulses of 3000 s. The architecture is shown to be immediately reusable via a burn-back maneuver to return the propulsion unit while still within range of the Earth-based laser. The ability to tolerate much greater laser fluxes enables realizing the combination of high thrust and high specific impulse, making this approach favorable in comparison to laser-electric propulsion and occupying a parameter space similar to gas-core nuclear thermal rockets (without the requisite reactor). The heating chamber and its associated regenerative cooling and propellant handling systems are crucial elements of the design that receive special attention in this study. The astrodynamics and the extreme aerocapture maneuver required at Mars arrival after a 45-day transit are also analyzed in detail. The application of laser-thermal propulsion as an enabling technology for other rapid transit missions in the solar system and beyond is discussed.

Pulse load on a stationary barrier during an explosion in water

С использованием экспериментальных данных о взрывах в воде найдена аналитическая зависимость распределения удельного импульса взрывной нагрузки по длине балки. Учтены эффекты отражения возмущенного потока воды от поверхности преграды, глубина ее расположения в водоёме, взаимное расположение сферического заряда ВВ и преграды в воде, физические характеристики заряда. Using experimental data on explosions in water, an analytical dependence of the distribution of the specific impulse of the explosive load along the length of the beam is found. The effects of reflection of the disturbed water flow from the barrier surface, the depth of its location in the reservoir, the mutual location of the spherical explosive charge and the barrier in the water, the physical characteristics of the charge are taken into account.

Metals and Alloys Additives as Enhancer for Rocket Propulsion: A Review

A rocket's engine usually uses fuel and oxygen as propellants to increase the rocket's projection during launch. Nowadays, metallic ingredients are commonly used in the rocket’s operation to increase its performance. Metallic ingredients have a high energy density, flame temperature, and regression rate that are important factors in the propulsion process. There is a wide range of additives have been reported so far as catalysts for rocket propulsion. The studies show that the presence of metal additives improves the regression rate, specific impulse and combustion efficiency. Herein, the common energetic additives for rocket propulsion such as metal and light metals are reviewed. Besides the effect of these energetic particles on the regression behaviors of base (hybrid) fuel has been exclusively discussed. This paper also proposed a new alloy namely high entropy alloys (HEAs) as a new energetic additive that can potentially increase the performance of the rocket propellant system.

Improvement of Composite Propellants Energy Using Explosive Materials

Composite propellants are energetic materials have ability to ignite, burn fast and cause several simultaneous exothermic chemical reactions which produce huge amounts of gases under high pressures and temperatures which can spread spontaneously. 1n the present study, the explosive material hexogen (Cyclo tri-methylene tri-nitramine) was used to improve the performance properties of composite propellants, especially the specific impulse. For several formulations of hexogen at different added percentages, the specific impulse was calculated using thermodynamic calculations program of composite propellants. The results given were compared with those formulations not including hexogen. It was seen that; hexogen caused a significant positive effect in the specific impulse. Accordingly, the energy of composite propellant was improved positively in the samples containing hexogen till 40% of the oxidizer ratio. Also, it was noticed that the specific impulse began to decrease gradually for the oxidizers containing more than 40% of hexogen which caused in a decreasing of composite propellant energy. Finally, it was concluded that, the use of some amount of explosive materials like hexogen can improve composite propellants energy successfully.

Determining energetic characteristics and selecting environmentally friendly components for solid rocket propellants at the early stages of design

This paper has investigated the possibility to theoretically calculate a value of the specific impulse for highly energetic compositions using only two parameters – the heat of the reaction and the number of moles of gaseous decomposition reaction products. Specific impulse is one of the most important energetic characteristics of rocket propellant. It demonstrates the level of achieving the value of engine thrust and propellant utilization efficiency. Determining the specific impulse experimentally is a complex task that requires meeting special conditions. For the stage of synthesis of new promising components, the comparative analysis of energetic characteristics, forecasting the value of specific impulse, especially relevant are calculation methods. Most of these methods were first developed to determine the energetic characteristics of explosives. Since explosives and rocket propellants in many cases have similar energy content and similar chemical composition, some estimation methods can be used to assess the specific impulse of solid rocket propellant. The specific impulse has been calculated for 45 compositions based on environmentally friendly oxidizers (ammonium dinitramide, hydrazinium nitroformate, hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane) and polymer binders polybutadiene with terminal hydroxyl groups, glycidylazide polymer, poly-3-nitratomethyl-3-methyloxetane). It was established that the estimation data obtained correlate well with literary data. Deviation of the derived values of the specific impulse from those reported in the literature is from 0.4 % to 1.8 %. The calculation results could be used for preliminary forecasting of energetic characteristics for highly energetic compositions, selecting the most promising components, as well as their ratios.

Steric Effects on Electroosmotic Nano-Thrusters under High Zeta Potentials

Here, space electroosmotic thrusters in a rigid nanochannel with high wall zeta potentials are investigated numerically, for the first time, considering the effect of finite size of the ionic species. The effect, which is called a steric effect, is often neglected in research about micro/nano thrusters. However, it has vital influences on the electric potential and flow velocity in electric double layers, so that the thruster performances generated by the fluid motion are further affected. These performances, including thrust, specific impulse, thruster efficiency, and the thrust-to-power ratio, are described by using numerical algorithms, after obtaining the electric potential and velocity distributions under high wall zeta potentials ranging from −25.7 mV to −128.5 mV. As expected, the zeta potential can promote the development of thruster performances so as to satisfy the requirement of space missions. Moreover, for real situation with consideration of the steric effect, the thruster thrust and efficiency significantly decrease to 5–30 micro Newtons and 80–90%, respectively, but the thrust-to-power ratio is opposite, and expends a short specific impulse of about 50–110 s.

Nitration of Chitin Monomer: From Glucosamine to Energetic Compound

The nitration of chitin monomer in a mixture of nitric acid and acetic anhydride was conducted and a highly nitrated (3R,4R,6R)-3-acetamido-6-((nitrooxy)methyl)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2,4,5-triyl trinitrate (1) was obtained. Its structure was fully characterized using infrared spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X-ray diffraction. Compound 1 possesses good density (ρ: 1.721 g·cm−3) and has comparable detonation performance (Vd: 7717 m·s−1; P: 25.6 GPa) to that of nitrocellulose (NC: Vd: 7456 m·s−1; P: 23 GPa; Isp = 239 s) and microcrystalline nitrocellulose (MCNC; Vd: 7683 m·s−1; P: 25 GPa; Isp = 250 s). However, Compound 1 has much lower impact sensitivity (IS: 15 J) than the regular nitrocellulose (NC; IS: 3.2 J) and MCNC (IS: 2.8 J). Compound 1 was calculated to exhibit a good specific impulse (Isp: 240 s), which is comparable with NC (Isp: 239 s) and MCNC (Isp: 250 s). By replacing the nitrocellulose with Compound 1 in typical propellants JA2, M30, and M9, the specific impulse was improved by up to 4 s. These promising properties indicate that Compound 1 has a significant potential as an energetic component in solid propellants.