61 replies to this topic

[Potassium chlorate]

The critical moments are of course when you press it and at take-off. But I thought it'd be more powerful. Despite the 25% higher oxygen content, you can only make KClO₄ react more powerful in a lab, not in the field.
Well, Shimizu used potassium picrate(!) and potassium nitrate 67:33 when he started his pyro career, before most of us were even born.

[Vic]

'dr thrust', on 16 Feb 2011 - 7:11 PM, said:

kclo3 has been used as a whistle oxidizer,and yep you've guessed it.. more powerful as it gives up its oxygen easier than a perchlorate ,and way more sensitive not ideal when you have a tube full of it on a press!.as for ap, its reputed to be very sensitive to mechanical action! properly why most ap propellants are cast in resins etc. heres a good link on how a "whistle" works, ap is mentioned whistles

Interesting read Thrusty apart from whistles it has answered a question for me - why some burning stars hitting the ground go bang

“In the gas phase above the solid state combustion, the situation is
different. Here the Hugoniot curves are totally different and the
pressures are measured in bar instead of kilobar. Thus, an external
shock wave easily triggers a detonation in the gas phase, if the gas
phase contains a combustible mixture and even more easily, if this
combustible mixture is already hot. This is a well known phenomenon
with rocket fuels and colored stars. If a star hits ground while
burning, it often makes a small bang”