THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT OF NANOPARTICLE BASED SOLID PROPELLANT MIXTURES

A Miniaturised Pyrotechnic Initiator (MPI) is a device used to ignite a charge. It is reduced in scale in order to be suitable for application in miniaturised satellites. Miniaturising the system presents challenges requiring careful consideration of propellant selection. Thermal conductivity tests have been conducted on different mixtures of composite solid propellant materials in order to determine the thermal conductivity of the propellant in the temperature range 0-100°C and to study the effect of the presence of porosity and bubbles on the thermal conductivity of the propellant. The applicability of semiempirical Ziebland Relation to predict the thermal conductivity of the composite propellant once the values of the single components are known has been assessed. Furthermore, mixtures of Al and Potassium Perchlorate powders with different compression factors have been examined in order to understand the influence of the processing conditions on thermal conductivity.