[SS-VehDev] melting & casting in the grain inh. directly

[Ing. Roman Lev]

Hi guys,

lot of interesting ideas. I have one too - There is a problem mix and cast batch of 50 kilos of propellant. Do we need them mix and pour at all? 

If slurry of the sorbitol , just a little bit water and KNO3 would be placed into the melting bowl [ lets say melting & evaporating can ] of the same dimensions as the grain inhibitor or, slignthly higher for potenciall evaporating bubbles, heating and casting could be performed directly in the grain inhibitor. The grain inhibitor - material must be done from material sustainable to survive high temperatures anyway. If the apparatus would be vacuum tight, melting, evaporating of water from the mixture  & cooling could be done without any manipulation with the propellant. Because of vacuum process there would be no bubbles, amount of water should just enough to make the mixture not flammable; therefore would be easy and safe to mix the batch prior the heating just by hand.
Jacketed heater would be very likely lot more safe than direct heating, regular glycol-based  antifreezers would be suitable as heating/ cooling medium.

I see just big disadvantage right now - process would be very time consuming, because almost all the energy necessary to  heat-up mixture to the boiling point and evaporate all water from the slurry must be transferred through the bottom of the grain [ grain wall has high thermal resistivity  anyway]. 

I haven't seen any big sedimentation during melting/pouring at all - even if there would be any, I think it could be eliminated by heating on the temerature where the sorbitol is still heavy liquid....It sounds nicely - but is it feasible?

 Picture would say a lot - will follow.

r+