This final scientific report reviews the progress from May 1979 to December 1982 on a program to study various aspects of solid propellant combustion phenomena. The original program included three specific areas of study: Diffusion flame analysis; Kinetic mechanisms of double base propellants; Interaction effects of distributed particle combustion in acoustic environments. The diffusion flame is the controlling mechanism in the combustion of composite propellants. Therefore, a thorough understanding of diffusion flames is prerequisite to understanding solid propellant combustion, and was the objective of one task of the program. The second task of the program was motivated by the desire to better understand transient combustion such as occurs in DDT and combustion instability. Double base propellant combustion is dominated by the flame kinetics which appear to be more easily studied than those of composite propellants. The final task of the program was aimed at understanding the effect of stability additives on combustion instability. During the final year of the contract, work on the first two tasks was discontinued and all work was concentrated on the third task. Interim reports covering the initial work have been published in December 1980 and February 1982. This report summarizes the work performed during the final phase of the contract covering the time from October 1981 through December 1982. Keywords: Solid rocket propellants.

The objective is to investigate the mechanism of action of burning rate catalysts in the ignition and combustion of double-base propellants. Experimentally, the surface temperatures of burning propellant strands are measured and chemical-kinetic investigations of the products of degradation of the regressing surface are carried out. Heat is supplied by an arc image furnace for the ignition studies. (Author).