Comparative study on the rheological properties of cellulose acetate and double-base propellant

Cellulose acetate (CA) and nitrocellulose (NC) are both cellulose derivatives with similar chemical structure and physical properties, and CA are non-flammable and biodegradable, so CA has been used as a safe substitute to NC for artillery propellant research. The ester functional groups of CA and NC are different, and there are other components in the propellant, so the rheological properties of CA and propellant can be different slightly. However, the comparative study of rheological properties between CA and propellant is rarely reported. In this paper, the rheological properties of CA and double-base propellant (DP) in extrusion process was studied by in-line slit rheometer. The results show that the power-law model can describe the rheological properties of CA and DP well. The shear viscosity of CA and DP decreases gradually with the increase of solvent ratio, and when the solvent ratio of CA is 0.87 and that of DP is 0.34, the rheological properties of CA and DP are most similar. The Arrhenius equation can reflect the relationship between shear viscosity and temperature of CA and DP, and the viscous activation energy of CA is about 23.68 kJ/mol, while that of DP is about 7.38 kJ/mol. In general, the effect of temperature on the rheological properties of CA is stronger than that of DP.