Solid Propellants

TL;DR

This review discusses the material properties of solid propellants, focusing on polymer binders and their role in safety and performance, highlighting recent advances and modeling challenges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of modern polymer binders in solid propellants and discusses current limitations in modeling composite motor behavior.

Findings

Polymer binders are crucial for propellant performance and safety.

Current modeling approaches face significant limitations.

Advances in binder materials can improve propellant insensitivity.

Abstract

Solid propellants are energetic materials used to launch and propel rockets and missiles. Although their history dates to the use of black powder more than two millennia ago, greater performance demands and the need for "insensitive munitions" that are resistant to accidental ignition have driven much research and development over the past half-century. The focus of this review is the material aspects of propellants, rather than their performance, with an emphasis on the polymers that serve as binders for oxidizer particles and as fuel for composite propellants. The prevalent modern binders are discussed along with a discussion of the limitations of state-of-the-art modeling of composite motors.