Safety testing and IM characterisation of LOVA gun propellants

In the development of gun propellants over the years a number of aspects are very important. Apart from the performance requirements - higher specific impulse and a lower flame temperature – also requirements for safer production, use and storage and an extended storage life time can be mentioned.
A number of gun propellant generations have been developed and investigated and this presentation has been written with the intention to review these generations with special attention to the processing safety, LOVA and IM properties.
With regard to the processing safety, level 1 type tests such as friction and impact sensitivity of the product are usually carried out. This holds for the processing of TPE’s and ETPE’s as binder material. Furthermore the thermal stability properties are very important because of the possible heating during processing of these pastes; extrusion tests with inert simulants have shown that the heating in the extruder itself and in the die by shear heating may be considerable and during which the safety limits are exceeded.
LOVA and IM properties of gun propellants have drawn a lot of attention the last decade. After passing level 1 tests, level 2 tests are carried out to find out whether a potential IM candidate has been found. Level 3 tests or the UN test series 7 will show which candidate is the best. Data from TNO-PML experiments concerning the processing of LOVA gun propellant and simulants thereof are presented.
A comparison of TNO experiments and literature data of level 1 and 2 test results is made of the gun propellant generations and particularly of LOVA gun propellants.