Research on the energy performance of gun propellant formulations containing 3,5-bis(azidomethyl) isoxazole (BAMIO)

Abstract In order to evaluate the application value of 3,5-bis(azidomethyl) isoxazole (BAMIO) as a heterocyclic azido plasticizer in low-ablation gun propellant formulations, the energy performance of gun propellants containing BAMIO was studied by calculating the properties of the formulations. The results show that BAMIO content, the solvent-nitrocellulose ratio, as well as the content and ratio of high-energy solid additives all have significant effects on the energetic performance of BAMIO-containing propellant formulations, including force capacity, detonation temperature, detonation heat, and specific volume. From equal-force-capacity and equal-detonation-temperature ternary diagrams ulteriorly, the preferable performance of BAMIO-containing propellant formulations using hexogen (RDX) and nitroguanidine (NGu) as high-energy solid additives was calculated to be about 1090 J•g −1 for force capacity and 2750 K for detonation temperature when the content of RDX is not greater than that of NGu. In other words, BAMIO-containing propellant formulations can reduce the detonation temperature by more than 300 K with an even higher force capacity compared with the traditional low-ablation nitroguanidine propellant. It is concluded that BAMIO has certain application prospects in low-ablation propellant formulations, which can be used as an energetic plasticizer in the formulations for further application research.