Kinetic analysis of the thermal decomposition of three LOVA gun propellants based on RDX and nitrocellulose.

The undesired ignition of ammunitions during their different stages of life can lead to hazardous situations for goods and people. To tackle these potential issues, low-vulnerability ammunitions (LOVA) have been developed. However, this loss of sensitivity can lead to ignition issues. Therefore, the study of ignition phenomena like thermal decomposition is essential. This paper is about the thermal decomposition of three LOVA gun propellants based on RDX and nitrocellulose. Decomposition is studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) between 303 and 573 K, under argon atmosphere and five heating rates (0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 K min−1). A kinetic analysis method, considering ICTAC recommendations, is developed in this paper and applied to TG results. The latter allows to determine global kinetic parameters (pre-exponential factor, activation energy and reaction model based on the truncated Šesták-Berggren equation) to obtain a decomposition law depending on temperature and extent of conversion. Models with three independent parallel kinetic steps are obtained. Their integration provides mass loss curves in good agreement with the TG results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]