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Some Civilian Applications of Solid Propellants

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Chemical Rocket Propulsion

Part of the book series: Springer Aerospace Technology ((SAT))

Abstract

The history of rocket (and thus also propellant) development is closely related to military applications. But besides military applications (bombardment), from the beginning of development, rockets with solid propellants have found a variety of civilian uses like signaling and fireworks. Modern solid propellants have evolved the field of application of rocket missiles for civil/scientific use to sounding rockets and launch vehicles. As solid propellants after ignition can generate large quantities of gas for a short time, it can also be used to produce force (i.e., mechanical work) or power. These attributes have led to the proliferation of commercial application in recent years in different safety devices with special purposes in the automotive and aviation industries, among them inflators in air bags. Other applications involved various separation mechanisms, pyrotechnic valves and actuating devices, emergency systems, and devices designed to ensure auxiliary propulsion. Three applications in the civilian sphere are reviewed in this chapter in more details: the small low-altitude sounding rockets which are used to prevent hailstone formation in turbulent atmospheric conditions and in this way damage on the crops; gas generators suited for fire suppression, called solid propellant fire extinguishers, where gas produced by controlled combustion of solid propellant is discharged directly into the fire-affected area in a non-propulsive manner and suppresses fire via a combination of different physical mechanisms like dilution, cooling, flow rate, and chemical effects; and solid propellant gas generators applied in systems for emergency surfacing of submarines, ships, or any other sinking objects.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Environment, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Vladica Bozic

  2. VEDA, Skoplje, 1060, Macedonia

    Boris Jankovski

Authors
  1. Vladica Bozic
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  2. Boris Jankovski
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Correspondence to Vladica Bozic .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Space Propulsion Laboratory (SPLab) Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Luigi T. De Luca

  2. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sagamihara, Japan

    Toru Shimada

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, Moscow, Russia

    Valery P. Sinditskii

  4. The Inner Arch, Poissy, France

    Max Calabro

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Bozic, V., Jankovski, B. (2017). Some Civilian Applications of Solid Propellants. In: De Luca, L., Shimada, T., Sinditskii, V., Calabro, M. (eds) Chemical Rocket Propulsion. Springer Aerospace Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27748-6_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27748-6_39

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27746-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27748-6

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