SUMMARY
The acoustic emission technique has been considered to be one of the most reliable and robust methods for the measurement of the steady burning rate of composite propellants. In this work, attempts were made to quantify the measurement variability of the burning rate of composite solid propellants by acoustic emission method using statistical tools. A total of 1100 individual measurements were subjected to statistical treatment. The combination of confidence interval and repeatability limit delineated the extent of natural dispersion in the burning rate measurement data. The very high coefficient of variation values for the propellant compositions, having a burning rate of more than 25 mm s–1 raised concerns about the suitability of the acoustic emission method for high burning rate compositions. The Reliability interval approach was employed to determine the statistically significant sample size for different composite propellants having a burning rate range of 5–31 mm s–1. The entire set of data was screened for identification of outlying observation using the Dixon Q test, and the extent of contamination was quantified. Moreover, the application of statistical techniques could have far-reaching implications for quality control perspectives of burning rate measurement by acoustic emission and could be implemented as reference tolerance limits and preventive measures for ensuring the good health of the instrument as well as propellant processing.