Abstract
This paper gives comparison between different burning rate testing techniques employed in propellant manufacturing industry. Commonly used techniques are strand burner and reduced scale rocket motors while other techniques are used for special applications. In general, small-scale motors (ballistic evaluation motors) are preferred to evaluate the burning rate of actual rocket motors while strand burner is used for quick assessment tests or quality control of large propellant production. Comparison and statistical analysis of burning rate of a HTPB based composite propellant having solid loading of around 86% was made. AP (Ammonium Perchlorate) was selected as oxidizer and Al (aluminum powder) as metallic fuel. Burning rate was measured at standard conditions by using strand burner technique and ballistic evaluation motors (BEM) for comparison of results. It was observed that burning rates obtained by both techniques are not same, and an increasing trend was observed from strand burner to ballistic evaluation motors.