Heat release rate of energetic materials by calorimetric methodology
Résumé
Energetic materials encompass a wide range of chemical compounds. Their peculiarity is that they react very rapidly. They do not require oxygen from the air as their primary reaction partner. The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of the ability for calorimetric equations to measure the heat release rate in order to characterize thermal behaviour of energetic materials. The methods are based on oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide generation principles. First, results from smoke powder combustion tests reveal a discrepancy between the two approaches. Their ratio appears to be constant for all the tests. A sensitivity analysis underlines that the most likely parameters to alter the heat release rate estimation are the energy constants, the concentration of oxygen and the exhaust flow rate. However, this last term appears in both expressions and can not affect their ratio. In the end, the interpretation of the divergence in the results is based on the hypothesis that a part of the oxygen involved in the combustion process is supplied by the oxidizer and this amount is not integrated in the calculation.