Insensitive Munitions (WP-1072)

Objective

The goal of this project was to develop and evaluate a family of “green” gun propellants that could be
manufactured without emission of volatile organic compounds or hazardous air pollutants. The unique
approach to this otherwise traditional formulation effort was to develop and use a model-based
methodology for formulation development. This approach will minimize the pollution generated during
a propellant development program and, at the same time, include environmental impact as a
parameter in the development process for new formulations.

The goals of the project were the following: (1) development of benign energetic materials and
manufacturing and disposal methods which provide for safer, more cost-effective insensitive
munitions and which meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations and (2) bring together a
number of modeling and simulation modules to design a gun propellant which meets all the
operational requirements for military guns.

Technical Approach

The project’s technical approach was to use ammonium dinitramide (ADN) as an ingredient in military
explosives and propellants. ADN is an attractive ingredient because its combustion products are more
environmentally benign than hydrocarbon molecules and ammonium perchlorate. ADN decomposes
to water and laughing gas.

Various risks were involved in the technical approach. They included the following: (1) whether
propellants and explosives using ADN would meet all military operational and safety requirements for
ordnance, (2) whether the manufacture of ADN would be environmentally preferable to the materials
it replaces, and (3) whether during demilitarization an ADN-based formulation would have less
environmental impact than the materials it displaces. To mitigate these risks, models were developed
to help guide the formulation of green gun propellants based on a simulation of the ability of the
formulation to meet the operational requirements. In addition, batch mixers and continuous
twin-screw extruders were utilized to demonstrate the affordable manufacture of propellant and
explosive formulations.

Results

The modules that make up the green gun propellant model and a flow chart showing how data flows
from one module to the next have been defined. The user enters various performance requirements
including muzzle velocity, projectile shape, gun design, and vulnerability requirements along with
known environmental concerns, such as the local environmental regulations governing the locality
where manufacturing might be done. The model then accepts proposed gun propellant formulations

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 from a gun propellant formulator and calculates performance properties, the burn rate of the
formulation, mechanical properties of gun propellant, erosion and wear of the gun barrel caused by
the formulation, toxicity of the ingredients, manufacturing characteristics and wastes for each
proposed formulation, emissions from formulations burns and storage, and likely wastes produced
through demilitarization by processes other than burning and detonation. This project was completed
in FY 1999.

Benefits

The new "green" energetic materials and manufacturing processes will reduce the adverse life-cycle
impact of ordnance on the environment. The green materials simultaneously will provide higher
performance energetics and reduce life-cycle weapons costs during development, procurement, and
demilitarization. Modeling of propellants will enable the propellant designer to make decisions based
on inexpensive models rather than expensive trial and error testing of numerous experimental
propellant formulations.

Points of Contact

Principal Investigator
Dr. Jim Short
Office of Naval Research (Code 333)
Phone: 703-696-0690
Fax: 703-696-2558
SHORTJ@ONR.NAVY.MIL

Program Manager
Weapons Systems and Platforms
SERDP and ESTCP
wp@noblis.org

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