Rheological Characterization of Metalized and Non-Metalized Ethanol Gel Propellants

Abstract

The gellation of metalized and non-metalized ethanol with a methylcellulose gelling agent and its effect on the rheological properties (flow and dynamic study) of these gels is reported herein. The rheological study shows that increasing the shear rate reduces the apparent viscosity for a given yield stress (for a shear rate range of 1 to 12 s(-1)) for both shear rate ranges (1 to 12 and 1 to 1000 s(-1)) covered in present experiment. The gellant and metal particle concentrations significantly influence the gel apparent viscosity. Distinct changes in thixotropic behavior were observed, while decreasing the concentration of MC gellant and Al metal particles in the ethanol gels. The dynamic study showed that all of the linear viscoelastic regions (LVE) of the gel samples were independent of strain percentage (1 to 10). The G' values depended on the frequency and exceeded the G '' values, which indicated a gel-like highly structured material. The tan delta values showed that all of the ethanol gels were elastic and weak physical gels with a high degree of cross-linking.