# Thermal decomposition of RDX/NC gun-propellants: A kinetic study

Samuel Delbarre, Léo Courty

► To cite this version:

Samuel Delbarre, Léo Courty. Thermal decomposition of RDX/NC gun-propellants: A kinetic study. Thermochimica Acta, 2025, 748, 10.1016/j.tca.2025.179989. hal-05458351

HAL Id: hal-05458351

https://hal.science/hal-05458351v1

Submitted on 14 Jan 2026

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

# Thermal decomposition of RDX/NC gun-propellants: A kinetic study

Samuel Delbarre ID, Léo Courty * ID

Univ. Orleans, INSA-CVL, PRISME UR 4229, Bourges, France

## ARTICLE INFO

### Keywords:

Thermal decomposition

Gun propellant

RDX

Nitrocellulose

Nitrogen

## ABSTRACT

Gun propellants are a family of energetic materials designed to produce a high amount of gases during a short period of time. Their accidental ignition can lead to severe accidents that caused many casualties in the past. To overcome this problem, insensitive gun propellants have been developed. However, this loss of sensitivity can lead to ignition issues in operational use. Thermal decomposition of the solid phase is a key step in the ignition process and remains challenging. This paper presents the thermal decomposition of three LOVA gun propellants based on RDX and nitrocellulose. Decomposition is studied by ThermoGravimetric Analysis (TGA) between 30 and 300 °C under nitrogen atmosphere. A kinetic analysis method, previously developed, has been applied to TGA results. Doing so, global kinetic parameters are determined to obtain a solid phase decomposition law. Models using this law provide mass losses in good agreement with TGA results.

## 1. Introduction

Nitrocellulose is an energetic material historically employed for the formulation of gun-propellants. Extremely sensitive to friction and heat when dry, it represents a serious threat regarding safety of these ammunitions. To reduce the likelihood of undesired ignition of gun-propellants throughout their lifecycle, insensitive gun propellants have been developed. These new propellants, composed of ingredients like RDX, a nitramine secondary explosive, are more difficult to ignite. However, this loss of sensitivity can impact performances under operational conditions, making the study of their ignition behavior essential.

Among the several phenomena involved in ignition, thermal decomposition is central since it is behind the formation of the first gaseous species that will give rise to the flame. According to the ISO standard (ISO 13943-2023), thermal decomposition can be defined as a change in chemical composition due to heat or high temperatures. However, in practice, the term “thermal decomposition” is usually employed to encompass a larger range of processes: decomposition, thermodynamic transformations and subsequent reactions.

Thermal decomposition of materials like RDX has been the subject of numerous studies [1-6]. RDX can decompose in three main physical states: solid, liquid and gas. Thus, its decomposition involves an important number of processes that can make its comprehension difficult. Despite this complexity, several studies have succeeded in formulating consistent chemical kinetic mechanisms to model these phenomena. They include global mechanisms [7] and a detailed

mechanism [8] for the condensed phase, as well as several detailed mechanisms for the gas phase [9-11]. Regarding nitrocellulose, its decomposition would exclusively occur in the condensed phase: partially in solid state, first, before melting and forming a thick mixture with its decomposition products [12]. Although several major decomposition paths have been identified [13-17], nitrocellulose decomposition is still poorly understood, and its modelling remains challenging.

This study focuses on the thermal decomposition of an insensitive gun-propellants based on RDX and nitrocellulose. Previous articles have already examined decomposition [18], as well as laser ignition and combustion [19], of these materials. Initial studies have enabled to determine the nature and quantity of chemical species produced during pyrolysis at high heating rates, while others have explored the influence of various parameters on ignition and combustion properties. All these studies have highlighted the significant effect of atmosphere on the observed phenomena. More recently, authors were interested in the global modelling of gun-propellants decomposition kinetics under argon atmosphere [20]. The present study, as for it, is focused on decomposition under nitrogen.

## 2. Materials and methods

### 2.1. Experimental aspects

The materials studied are three RDX/nitrocellulose based insensitive gun propellants named PL1, PL2 and PL3. They are respectively

<footnote>* Corresponding author.</footnote>

<footnote>E-mail address: leo.courty@univ-orleans.fr (L. Courty).</footnote>
composed of 94.7, 89.7 and 84.7 wt. % of RDX and 5, 10 and 15 wt. % of nitrocellulose, the remainder being Centralite I, a stabilizer. Note that nitrocellulose used for the formulation has a nitrated rate of 11.7 % N. These propellants are cylindrical white pellets perforated by a central hole and obtained by extrusion. They have been produced at the French German Institute of Saint Louis. Before their characterization, they have been heated during minimum 24 h under 50 °C to remove humidity and cut to form samples.

In this paper, the decomposition of our propellants is investigated at atmospheric pressure and under low heating rate conditions by thermogravimetry. A TGA Setaram Setsys 16/18 has been used and, for each propellant, five constant heating rates have been considered. For each test, samples are placed into an alumina pan and heated between 30 and 300 °C under a dynamic flow of nitrogen (40 mL/min). Detailed experimental conditions are presented in Table 1.

It should be noted that, for the case of decomposition, TGA allows to follow mass loss of the sample. This means that only transformations involving condensed/gas transition can be detected. Therefore, processes like melting or gas phase decomposition are not studied here.

## 2.2. Analysis method

So as to model the kinetics of decomposition, an analysis method using TGA experiments, and based upon ICTAC recommendations [21–23], has been developed. This method is detailed in a previous study [20] and consequently, only the general principles are presented below.

The condensed phase phenomena are usually modeled thanks to a global equation of rate:

$$d_t \alpha = k(T) \cdot f(\alpha) = A \cdot \exp\left(-\frac{E}{R \cdot T}\right) \cdot f(\alpha) \quad (1)$$

where $\alpha$ is the extent of conversion, A the pre-exponential factor of Arrhenius, E the activation energy, R the ideal gas constant and $f(\alpha)$ the reaction model. According to this formalism, the determination of the kinetic triplet, constituted by A, E and $f(\alpha)$, is sufficient to entirely describe the decomposition.

In theory, this equation is only valid for phenomena controlled by a single global reaction, which is rarely the case for thermal decomposition. In the case of a multistep process, it is required to consider a certain number of reactions to obtain a satisfying modelling. Usually, two or three reactions are sufficient, even if the actual number of reactions is higher. For each considered reaction or kinetic step $k$, an extent of conversion $\alpha_k$ is defined. It is assumed to follow the previous equation of rate and, thus, each step $k$ is described by its own kinetic triplet ($A_k, E_k, f_k(\alpha_k)$):

$$d_t \alpha_k = A_k \cdot \exp\left(-\frac{E_k}{R \cdot T}\right) \cdot f_k(\alpha_k) \quad (2)$$

Conversions $\alpha_k$ and total conversion $\alpha_{tot}$ are then linked as follows:

$$\alpha_{tot} = \sum_{k=1}^{N_{\text{steps}}} w_k \cdot \alpha_k \quad (3)$$

<table><caption>**Table 1**

Conditions of TGA experiments.</caption><thead><tr><th>Propellant</th><th>Mass (mg)</th><th>Atmosphere</th><th>Heating rates (°C/min) for T = [30; 300] °C</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>PL1</td><td>2.52 ± 0.32</td><td rowspan="3">Nitrogen (40 mL/min)</td><td rowspan="3">0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2</td></tr><tr><td>PL2</td><td>2.21 ± 0.25</td></tr><tr><td>PL3</td><td>2.68 ± 0.18</td></tr></tbody></table>

$$d_t \alpha_{tot} = \sum_{k=1}^{N_{\text{steps}}} w_k \cdot d_t \alpha_k \quad (4)$$

In these equations, each kinetic step is weighted by a weight $w_k$ which corresponds to the part of the step in the global process. Finally, the truncated Sesták-Berggren equation is employed to represent the reaction model $f_k(\alpha_k)$:

$$f_k(\alpha_k) = z_k \cdot \alpha_k^{m_k} \cdot (1 - \alpha_k)^{n_k} \quad (5)$$

This kind of model has a high flexibility and enables the mathematical representation of several classic models by adjusting parameters $z_k, m_k$ and $n_k$.

In summary, six unknowns are to be determined for each step $k$ considered: $w_k, A_k, E_k, z_k, m_k$ and $n_k$. These are obtained thanks an iterative procedure detailed in [20].

It is important to note that, here, reactions are supposed to evolve independently in parallel. They are not considered to be competitive or consecutive. This hypothesis is reductive enough since it assumes that each ingredient of the material decomposes independently from others, and that, according to one reaction. This can be true when intervals of reaction temperature do not overlap, which is not the case of RDX and nitrocellulose that both decomposes between 100 and 250 °C [2]. However, consideration of interactions between RDX and nitrocellulose is complex, and requires a high number of reactions to consider. This comes under detailed kinetics that is beyond the scope of thermal analysis.

# 3. Results and discussion

## 3.1. Experimental results

Experimental mass losses of the three gun-propellants obtained under nitrogen are presented Fig. 1. From these results, averaged final decomposition rates can first be deduced (Table 2):

It can be observed that, like under argon, final decomposition rate decreases when nitrocellulose ratio raises. However, values are lower here and suggest an effect of atmosphere. This has already been noticed at high heating rates by Ehrhardt et al. [18] for the same materials, who show that decomposition under nitrogen produces less gases than that under argon. In their study, Hiyoshi et al. [24] have noted that the decomposition of nitrocellulose was very weakly impacted by the nature of atmosphere contrary to RDX. Therefore, although most of residue formation is attributed to nitrocellulose, differences in final decomposition rates between the 2 atmospheres can be due to RDX decomposition.

On the whole, experimental mass loss profiles exhibit a sigmoidal shape characteristic of single-step phenomena. However, for some heating rates, the sigmoid does not present a distinct final plateau as typically observed, and the mass loss is much faster (e.g. 0.3 and 0.8 °C/min for PL2). This change in behavior is mainly observed for low heating rates, lower than 0.8 °C/min, but not for all: 0.3 and 0.5 °C/min for PL1, 0.3 and 0.8 °C/min for PL2 and 0.8 °C/min for PL3. Additional tests have been performed for PL2 and confirm this surprising behavior. They are presented in Appendix A as supplementary materials. Note that these differences concern, at most, the last 20 % of the mass loss and primarily occur after the RDX melting. Therefore, competitive reactions in liquid phase are certainly responsible for this.

Table 3 displays the mass fraction of propellant decomposed before the melting of RDX. As melting cannot be observed thanks to TGA, fraction is calculated assuming that RDX melts at its theoretical melting temperature of 205 °C. According to these results, although nitrocellulose part affects the nature of decomposition mechanism, it is not the major parameter of influence. Indeed, at low heating rates (0.3 and 0.5 °C/min) almost all decomposition occurs in solid phase, whereas it only represents half of decomposition at high heating rates (1.0 and 1.2 °C).
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1. Experimental mass losses and their first derivative under nitrogen.</figcaption></figure>

<table><caption>**Table 2**
Averaged final decomposition rates under nitrogen.</caption><thead><tr><th>Propellant</th><th>Decomposition rate under nitrogen</th><th>Decomposition rate under argon [20]</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>PL1</td><td>0.9882 ± 0.0118</td><td>0.9864 ± 0.0034</td></tr><tr><td>PL2</td><td>0.9531 ± 0.0226</td><td>0.9703 ± 0.0100</td></tr><tr><td>PL3</td><td>0.9334 ± 0.0201</td><td>0.9413 ± 0.0265</td></tr></tbody></table>

This highlights the fact that solid and liquid phenomena are at stake. Concerning RDX, the solid processes could correspond to sublimation and thermal decomposition, even if the latter is usually very slow. Regarding processes in liquid phase, evaporation and decomposition could be responsible for the gasification of liquid RDX. These phenomena have already been identified in thermal analysis studies performed

<table><caption>**Table 3**
Mass fraction of propellant decomposed in solid phase under nitrogen.</caption><thead><tr><th>(-)</th><th>0.3 °C/min</th><th>0.5 °C/min</th><th>0.8 °C/min</th><th>1.0 °C/min</th><th>1.2 °C/min</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>PL1</td><td>0.9273</td><td>0.8554</td><td>0.6715</td><td>0.4571</td><td>0.4418</td></tr><tr><td>PL2</td><td>0.9328</td><td>0.9464</td><td>0.6635</td><td>0.4964</td><td>0.4689</td></tr><tr><td>PL3</td><td>0.9652</td><td>0.9590</td><td>0.6757</td><td>0.5396</td><td>0.4883</td></tr></tbody></table>

by Long et al. [1] and Khichar et al. [5] at heating rates slightly higher (> 5 °C/min).

In order to estimate more precisely the number of reactional steps to consider, mass loss derivatives are also presented Fig. 1. Profiles are very similar to ones obtained under argon: reaction rate is represented by a shoulder followed by a peak [20]. Similarly to this previous study, the shoulder becomes more pronounced as nitrocellulose part increases.
Consequently, it is attributed to its decomposition. In the same manner, this analysis allowed to conclude on the fact that the main peak embodied RDX decomposition. This is consistent with another study of Jing et al. [2] who observed two peaks slightly overlapped for the decomposition of a RDX/NC propellant. According to the results obtained for pure ingredients, they linked the first peak to nitrocellulose decomposition and the second one to RDX one.

Note that, main peak exhibits a singular shape suggestive of the overlap of, at least, two peaks. Therefore, based on the observation of first derivatives, three kinetic steps can be considered: one associated with the decomposition of nitrocellulose (shoulder) and two with RDX one (main peak). This is consistent with the two kinds of reaction (solid and liquid) observed above.

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 2. Isoconversional activation energy of Friedman under nitrogen.</figcaption></figure>

## 3.2. Isoconversional analysis

The isoconversional activation energies of Friedman are illustrated in Fig. 2. Although profiles are very similar, energies globally diminish as nitrocellulose rate increases, confirming the propensity of this ingredient to sensitize RDX materials. This has already been noted for decomposition under argon [20]. However, energies obtained under nitrogen are higher on average. This can be related to the higher ignition energies obtained under nitrogen, in comparison to argon, in a previous study [19].

Energy profiles generally consist in an alternation of stable zones and high variations. These variations are higher than ± 10 % of averaged energy, and thus, decomposition cannot be considered as a single-step process [22]. In addition, this brings to the fact that activation energies determined here are apparent energies.

More precisely, profiles can be divided into three zones for which energies are relatively stable:

* Zone 1 seems to be closely linked to the nitrocellulose decomposition. The size of this zone increases with nitrocellulose content, and the apparent activation energy (150 kJ/mol) is also very close to the energies typically associated with the degradation of this polymer (between 130 and 196 kJ/mol [13]). A second process, likely the sublimation of RDX, occurs in parallel.

* Zone 2 corresponds to processes phenomena prior and subsequent to RDX melting, according to heating rates. Regarding energy values, transition between zone 1 and 2 is rather steep, energies increase sharply from around 150 kJ/mol to over 250 kJ/mol.

* In zone 3, values of activation energy are interpretable until an $\alpha$ of about 0.9. Beyond this point, the energy undergoes large fluctuations, resulting in values that are either very low or very high. This zone could be the seat of interactions between partially decomposed nitrocellulose and RDX.

Finally, the energy profiles obtained using the Friedman method lead us to consider three kinetic steps to model the propellants decomposition under nitrogen. As with studies under argon [20], these steps do not have precise physical significance but rather reflect the overall phenomenon.

## 3.3. Model-fitting analysis

The optimized parameters for the thermal decomposition of the three propellants under nitrogen are presented in Table 4. Unlike the kinetic analysis conducted under argon [20], it is important to note that in this case, some optimized kinetic and model parameters do not correspond to those typically found in the literature. Indeed, for step 3 associated with the decomposition of PL2, the pre-exponential factor is significantly higher than expected, generally between $10^9$ and $10^{22} s^{-1}$ for our materials [13,25]. The same applies to the activation energy and the obtained $n$ order, as a reaction order higher than 3 is quite rare [22].

Fig. 3 compares the simulated and experimental conversion rates. As with the decomposition under argon [20], the reproduction of the experimental mass losses is rather satisfactory. For PL1, on average, 41.2 % (58.2 % under argon) of the mass loss is reproduced with a relative error of <5 %, 58.2 % (58.6 % under argon) for PL2 and 66.3 % (62.4 % under argon) for PL3. For the rest of the decomposition, three zones of large error have been identified, like for study under argon:

1. A zone near the maximum of the derivative. As the mass loss is particularly steep in this zone, a slight shift of abscissa induces a high shift of ordinate. Errors are generally lower than 10 % in this zone.

2. A zone near the bend of the mass loss, usually difficult to reproduce by the model and even more, here, because of the difference of behavior according to the heating rate.
<table><caption>**Table 4**

Optimized parameters for the thermal decomposition of PL1, PL2 and PL3 under nitrogen.</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>w<sub>k</sub></th><th>A<sub>k</sub> (s<sup>-1</sup>)</th><th>E<sub>k</sub> (kJ/mol)</th><th>z<sub>k</sub></th><th>m<sub>k</sub></th><th>n<sub>k</sub></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>PL1</strong></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Step 1</td><td>0.2288</td><td>3.077.10<sup>11</sup></td><td>115.8</td><td>0.01757</td><td>5.166.10<sup>-9</sup></td><td>0.7332</td></tr><tr><td>Step 2</td><td>0.4994</td><td>1.001.10<sup>26</sup></td><td>249.2</td><td>0.03098</td><td>0.1768</td><td>3.341.10<sup>-11</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Step 3</td><td>0.2717</td><td>7.952.10<sup>22</sup></td><td>224.4</td><td>8.4201</td><td>1.139</td><td>5.832</td></tr><tr><td><strong>PL2</strong></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Step 1</td><td>0.3943</td><td>5.724.10<sup>11</sup></td><td>119.6</td><td>0.03251</td><td>0.1137</td><td>0.4679</td></tr><tr><td>Step 2</td><td>0.5117</td><td>4.538.10<sup>18</sup></td><td>184.7</td><td>0.1401</td><td>0.7188</td><td>0.6914</td></tr><tr><td>Step 3</td><td>0.0940</td><td>1.690.10<sup>122</sup></td><td>1690</td><td>616.3</td><td>1.005</td><td>20.33</td></tr><tr><td><strong>PL3</strong></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Step 1</td><td>0.3463</td><td>1.583.10<sup>13</sup></td><td>130.6</td><td>0.03107</td><td>0.1032</td><td>0.5397</td></tr><tr><td>Step 2</td><td>0.6128</td><td>6.312.10<sup>18</sup></td><td>185.7</td><td>0.1209</td><td>0.6782</td><td>0.6877</td></tr><tr><td>Step 3</td><td>0.0408</td><td>8.503.10<sup>8</sup></td><td>107.1</td><td>0.1254</td><td>0.4681</td><td>2.8162</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 3.** Comparison between experimental and simulated conversions under nitrogen.</figcaption></figure>
3. A zone for which the error is rather numerical. The simulated conversion approximates 1 with a numerical accuracy ($10^{-3}$) lower than the experimental one ($10^{-5}$), causing a very large error at the end of the mass loss.

## 4. Conclusion

In this study, thermal decomposition of three insensitive gun-propellants composed of RDX and nitrocellulose has been investigated. For that, experiments of thermogravimetry have been performed under nitrogen, and kinetic parameters have been obtained thanks to an analysis method previously presented. Although the decomposition model considered here was relatively simple, experimental mass loss profiles have been reproduced with satisfactory accuracy. Further works on the identification of pyrolysis species (FTIR, MS) and refinement of the kinetic model (competitive, consecutive reactions) would allow to improve the modelling.

### CRediT authorship contribution statement

Samuel Delbarre: Writing – original draft, Software, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis. Léo Courty: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Resources.

### Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

### Acknowledgements

This research was funded, in whole or in part, by the French National Agency of Research, project Chaire Industrielle ACXEME ANR-19-CHIN-0004. A CC-BY public copyright license has been applied by the authors to the present document and will be applied to all subsequent versions up to the Author Accepted Manuscript arising from this submission, in accordance with the grant's open access conditions.

### Supplementary materials

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.tca.2025.179989.

### Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

### References

[1] G.T. Long, S. Vyazovkin, B.A. Brems, C.A. Wight, Competitive vaporization and decomposition of liquid RDX, J. Phys. Chem. B 104 (2000) 2570–2574, https://doi.org/10.1021/jp993334n.

[2] W.-W. Jing, Z.-M. Dang, G.-P. Yang, The thermal decomposition behavior of RDX-base propellants, J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 79 (2005) 107–113, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-004-0570-9.

[3] M.W. Beckstead, K. Puduppakkam, P. Thakre, V. Yang, Modeling of combustion and ignition of solid-propellant ingredients, Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 33 (2007) 497–551, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecs.2007.02.003.

[4] L. Patidar, S.T. Thynell, Quantum mechanics investigation of initial reaction pathways and early ring-opening reactions in thermal decomposition of liquid-

phase RDX, Combust. Flame 178 (2017) 7–20, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2016.12.024.

[5] M. Khichar, L. Patidar, S. Thynell, Comparative analysis of vaporization and thermal decomposition of cyclotrimethylenetetrinitramine (RDX), J. Propuls. Power 35 (2019) 1098–1107, https://doi.org/10.2514/1.B37643.

[6] J. Gu, H. Li, X. Zhao, W. Wu, W. Chen, P. Jin, L. Chen, Kinetic modeling of liquid phase RDX thermal decomposition process and its application in the slow cook-off test prediction, Propell. Explos. Pyrotech. 46 (2021) 935–943, https://doi.org/10.1002/prep.202000291.

[7] T.B. Brill, H. Arisawa, P.J. Brush, P.E. Gongwer, G.K. Williams, Surface chemistry of burning explosives and propellants, J. Phys. Chem. 99 (1995) 1384–1392, https://doi.org/10.1021/j100005a005.

[8] M. Khichar, L. Patidar, S.T. Thynell, Improvement and validation of a detailed reaction mechanism for thermal decomposition of RDX in liquid phase, Combust. Flame 198 (2018) 455–465, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2018.10.005.

[9] C.F. Melius, Thermochemical modeling: II. Application to ignition and combustion of energetic materials, in: S.N. Bulusu (Ed.), Chem. Phys. Energ. Mater., Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 1990, pp. 51–78, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2035-4_4.

[10] R.A. Yetter, F.L. Dryer, M.T. Allen, J.L. Gatto, Development of gas-phase reaction mechanisms for nitramine combustion, J. Propuls. Power 11 (1995) 683–697, https://doi.org/10.2514/3.23894.

[11] D. Chakraborty, R.P. Muller, S. Dasgupta, W.A. Goddard Iii, A detailed model for the decomposition of nitramines: RDX and HMX, J. Comput.-Aided Mater. Des. 8 (2001) 203–212, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020074113000.

[12] N. Binke, L. Rong, C. Xianqi, W. Yuan, H. Rongzu, Y. Qingsen, Study on the melting process of nitrocellulose by thermal analysis method, J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 58 (1999) 249–256, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010138827699.

[13] R.A. Fifer, Chemistry of nitrate ester and nitramine propellants. Fundam. Solid-Propellant Combust., American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, New York, 1984, pp. 177–237. https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/book/10.2514/4.865671.

[14] M. Jin, N. Luo, G. Li, Y. Luo, The thermal decomposition mechanism of nitrocellulose aerogel, J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 121 (2015) 901–908, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-4574-4.

[15] R. Wei, S. Huang, Z. Wang, C. Wang, T. Zhou, J. He, R. Yuen, J. Wang, Effect of plasticizer dibutyl phthalate on the thermal decomposition of nitrocellulose, J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 134 (2018) 953–969, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7521-3.

[16] H. Chai, Q. Duan, H. Cao, M. Li, J. Sun, Effects of nitrogen content on pyrolysis behavior of nitrocellulose, Fuel 264 (2020) 116853, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116853.

[17] J. Ehrhardt, J. Glorian, L. Courty, B. Baschung, P. Gillard, Detailed kinetic mechanism for nitrocellulose low temperature decomposition, Combust. Flame 258 (2023) 113057, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2023.113057.

[18] J. Ehrhardt, L. Courty, P. Gillard, B. Baschung, Experimental study of pyrolysis and laser ignition of low-vulnerability propellants based on RDX, Molecules 25 (2020) 2276, https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25102276.

[19] L. Courty, P. Gillard, J. Ehrhardt, B. Baschung, Experimental determination of ignition and combustion characteristics of insensitive gun propellants based on RDX and nitrocellulose, Combust. Flame 229 (2021) 111402, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2021.111402.

[20] S. Delbarre, L. Courty, M. William-Louis, Kinetic analysis of the thermal decomposition of three LOVA gun propellants based on RDX and nitrocellulose, J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 149 (2024) 8113–8122, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-024-13359-2.

[21] S. Vyazovkin, A.K. Burnham, J.M. Criado, L.A. Pérez-Maqueda, C. Popescu, N. Sbirrazzuoli, ICTAC Kinetics Committee recommendations for performing kinetic computations on thermal analysis data, Thermochim. Acta 520 (2011) 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2011.03.034.

[22] S. Vyazovkin, A.K. Burnham, L. Favergeon, N. Koga, E. Moukhina, L.A. Pérez-Maqueda, N. Sbirrazzuoli, ICTAC Kinetics Committee recommendations for analysis of multi-step kinetics, Thermochim. Acta 689 (2020) 178597, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2020.178597.

[23] N. Koga, S. Vyazovkin, A.K. Burnham, L. Favergeon, N.V. Muravyev, L.A. Pérez-Maqueda, C. Saggese, P.E. Sánchez-Jiménez, ICTAC Kinetics Committee recommendations for analysis of thermal decomposition kinetics, Thermochim. Acta 719 (2023) 179384, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2022.179384.

[24] R.I. Hiyoshi, T.B. Brill, Thermal decomposition of energetic materials 83. Comparison of the pyrolysis of energetic materials in air versus argon, Propell. Explos. Pyrotech. 27 (2002) 23–30, https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-4087(200203)27:1<23::AID-PREP23>3.0.CO;2-B.

[25] W.R. Anderson, G.Da Silva, J.W. Bozzelli, C.B. Conner, Theoretical Study of the Combustion and Thermal Decomposition of RDX Part I: Kinetic Modeling, University of Virginia, 2007.