Thanks, I am just confused because all of the potassium nitrates I bought
were full of moisture content. That's why I got confused .
On Thu, Feb 9, 2023 at 11:56 AM Rocket Pavitra <pavitrapatel.astro@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Potassium nitrate absorbs water extremely readily. So you'll almost always
have to dehydrate the KNO3 before using it unless it was stored in a dry
environment in an airtight container and its fresh. But thankfully removing
water from the nitrate is relatively easy.
On Thu, Feb 9, 2023 at 11:47 AM கே.பி.எம் மாஸ் கார்த்தி <
kpmmasskarthi27@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
is it normal for the potassium nitrate to absorb the water or always in a
partial liquid state?
On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 10:19 PM Rocket Pavitra <
pavitrapatel.astro@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Caramalizing is basically the sugar breaking down to form compounds that
do not have as much energy and do not burn well.
So when your fuel caramalizes, the fuel's chemical composition is
changing to become useless.
On Wed, 8 Feb, 2023, 2:27 pm கே.பி.எம் மாஸ் கார்த்தி, <
kpmmasskarthi27@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for your reply . Can you explain what is the problem in
cramelizing sugar ?
புத, 8 பிப்., 2023, 2:21 PMக்கு, Rocket Pavitra <
pavitrapatel.astro@xxxxxxxxx> எழுதியது:
Hey! I'm Pavitra
First of all you should make sure that your fuel and oxidizer are
finely ground. If the grain size of the fuel and oxidizer particles is too
big you will experience problems with maintaining the burn rate of your
fuel, this is especially true if you are simply mixing the 2 powders
without melting/casting.
Second, make sure that you are adding the correct proportion of
propellants. Ideally you want to add 35-40 % of fuel (Assuming you're
using
some sugar like Sucrose - table sugar - , Dextrose, sorbitol etc) and
60-65
% of potassium nitrate.
After making sure that you're following the above 2 points correctly
if your fuel mixture still doesn't burn satisfactorily. You might want to
rid the fuel and oxidizer of moisture that it has absorbed overtime.
To do this you can either put your fuel and oxidizer in an oven at
50-70 degree Celsius for about an hour.
Or if you don't have access to an oven like me, what I do is I mix the
propellants in the correct mixture ratio and melt them on a pan. You want
to keep the temperature of the mixture low to avoid caramelization. Now
this depends on the fuel using.
Sucrose (Table sugar) is really hard to make a propellant out of by
this method because of its low caramelization temperature. But make sure
your pan temperature is below 150 celcius. If your propellant slurry
starts
turning brown it means the temperature is too high.
Dextrose as a fuel is much easier to work with if you prepare your
propellant by casting. It has a higher caramelization temperature and even
slightly higher energy.
You can get Dextrose online for pretty cheap if you look hard enough.
The melting and casting method eliminates some or all of the moisture
present in the propellants.
Hope this is helpful. 😊👍
On Wed, 8 Feb, 2023, 2:02 pm கே.பி.எம் மாஸ் கார்த்தி, <
kpmmasskarthi27@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi guys ,I am currently working on model rocket using potassium
nitrate and sugar as fuel. But i am having problem with potassium
nitrate ,
it have more moisture content . And also mixture didn't fire or reaction
is
not happening. Any reasons and solutions ?