Propellant
A propellant is a material that is used to move ("propel") an object. This will often involve a chemical reaction. It may be a gas, liquid, plasma, or, before the chemical reaction, a solid.
Common chemical propellants consist of a fuel, like gasoline, jet fuel and rocket fuel, and an oxidizer.
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Aerosol sprays
In aerosol spray cans, the propellant is simply a pressurized vapour in equilibrium with its liquid. As some gas escapes to expel the payload, more liquid evaporates, maintaining an even pressure.
Solid propellant rockets and projectiles
In ballistics and pyrotechnics, a propellant is a generic name for chemicals used for propelling projectiles from guns and other firearms. Some explosive substances can be used both as propellants and as bursters, as for example gunpowder, and some of the ingredients of a propellant may be similar, though differently proportioned and combined, to those of an explosive. Propellants are nearly always chemically different from explosives as used in shells and mines to produce a blasting effect.
A very typical propellant burns rapidly but controllably and non explosively, to produce thrust by gas pressure and thus accelerates a projectile or rocket. In this sense, common or well known propellants include, for firearms, artillery and solid propellant rockets:
- Gun propellants, such as:
- Gunpowder (black powder)
- Nitrocellulose-based powders
- Cordite
- Smokeless powders
- Composite propellants made from a solid oxidizer such as ammonium perchlorate or ammonium nitrate, a rubber such as HTPB or PBAN, and usually a powdered metal fuel such as aluminum.
- Some amateur propellants use potassium nitrate, combined with sugar, epoxy, or other fuels / binder compounds.
- Potassium perchlorate has been used as an oxidizer, paired with asphalt, epoxy, and other binders.
Propellants that explode in operation are of little practical use currently, although there have been experiments with Pulse Detonation Engines.
Sources and references
(incomplete)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
See also
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