Publications
Cookoff of Black Powder and Smokeless Powder
We have completed a series of both vented and sealed cookoff experiments of black powder and smokeless powder in our Sandia Instrumented Thermal Ignition (SITI) apparatus at bulk densities of 1078 and 729 kg/m3, respectively. The confining aluminum cylinder was ramped from room temperature to a set point temperature and then held at the setpoint temperature until ignition. The setpoint temperatures varied between 495 to 523 K for the black powder and 401 to 412 K for the more sensitive smokeless powder. The vented experiments show a significant delay in thermal ignition, indicating that the ignition is dependent on pressure. Post experimental debris shows greater violence for our smokeless powder experiments than our black powder experiments. A simplified universal cookoff model (UCM) was calibrated using the black powder and smokeless powder SITI data and used to predict pressurization and thermal ignition. The current work presents the first calibration of the UCM with a double base propellant. This work also presents the first pressure-dependent cookoff model for black powder and smokeless powder.