Ammonium Nitrate based Rockets

[[w00t]]

Has anyone tried this and can comment on its performance compared to other type of compositions (sugar rockets.. etc)

[Mumbles]

AN is probably best used in composite rocket motors. Many many people have tried them with good results. I have a feeling the composition would be too hydroscopic to bevery good in anything where it wasn't bound with something to keep water out. I believe people have tried using Ammonpulver in rockets before with acceptable results.

[BigBang]

If you end up trying it in a composite propellant, you will need two things to accompany it.

 

You will need to use and HTPB based binder. You will also need to use fine magnesium powder. The prefered HTPB is R20. This is a "thinner" version or the more common R45, so it is much easier to mix. R45 will work if you can't get R20.

 

The mesh size for the Mg should be between -500 to -1000. If you can get finer, by all means use it, but I haven't found any yet. You can not use Al, because it will cause the propellant to "chuff" and possibly stop burning. Mg is more reactive, and will give a clean burn if the motor is designed right.

 

ANCP burns relatively slow, almost twice as slowly as APCP. If you wish to speed up the burnrate, CuO is a very nice catalyst for ANCP. Also, dicromates will work.

[Boomer]

Anyone tried melt/cast AN mixes in a rocket (=remember my thread in HE)?

 

For those without HE access, I'm speaking AN+NaNO3 + things like urea nitrate, guanidine nitrate, methyl amine nitrate, or simply HDN to get the melting point down to a safe temp.

 

They are hardly detonable without added RDX as I tested recently, but being out of rocketry for two decades, I did not try a motor. A strand of it burns fiercely in the open, that's what gave me the idea.

Plus, much more gas and less solids at only 10-20% sodium nitrate, with everything else burning completely.

 

EDIT: I hope I brake no rules just by mentioning that these things could be mixed. Outside HE I won't give a synth of course.

[ActionTekJackson]

Hmm... I'll throw together some HDN and possibly try this *neighbors don't exactly like it when they don't work right and come falling back down on their house*, so I'll probly just set up an engine test, no flight.