Terry Perkins
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Bruce County
Every where I look I can find a powder burn rate chart. Where could I find a chart that shows the relative burn temperatures or energy produced per specific amounts of powder?
Powder Burn Temperatures
- Thread starter Terry Perkins
- Start date
I think that a burn temperature chart would be impossible to create. I would think that the ideal gas law would play a role making pressure and chamber volume key variables related to temperature. Pressure and volume would of course vary depending on the calibre and volume of powder, not just the type.
That said, burning powder is somewhere between a gas expansion and combustion scenario so undoubtedly it's even more complicated.
That said, burning powder is somewhere between a gas expansion and combustion scenario so undoubtedly it's even more complicated.
One can a also find a few examples of powders that for all practical purposes can be inter changed.
While working with a 7-08 I discovered that the same amount of 4350 as Norma 203 gave the same readings on the chrono, while realizing the stated tolerance deviation of the chrono. Later, I came across an old Norma loading chart where they gave readings for their powder and US powders. On the same loading, they showed 43.1 grain of one and 43.3 of the other, 203 and 4350. Like I said, practical purposes, as in real life, one could not determine any difference between those two powders.
Others, like 4320, 3031 and 4895, are so close to those two other types mentioned, that in reloading one could just drop back a couple of grains and work any of those into the same as 4350/N203, with likely less than two grains difference, one way or the other.
414 and Win 760 are usually listed as different powders, but in reality, they are both just the old 760 Winchester ball powder.
While working with a 7-08 I discovered that the same amount of 4350 as Norma 203 gave the same readings on the chrono, while realizing the stated tolerance deviation of the chrono. Later, I came across an old Norma loading chart where they gave readings for their powder and US powders. On the same loading, they showed 43.1 grain of one and 43.3 of the other, 203 and 4350. Like I said, practical purposes, as in real life, one could not determine any difference between those two powders.
Others, like 4320, 3031 and 4895, are so close to those two other types mentioned, that in reloading one could just drop back a couple of grains and work any of those into the same as 4350/N203, with likely less than two grains difference, one way or the other.
414 and Win 760 are usually listed as different powders, but in reality, they are both just the old 760 Winchester ball powder.
- Location
- In the shadows of the Rockies
Proprietary information.
Terry Perkins
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Bruce County
Thanks everyone, found the chart, measures heat in joules/gram. Quickload has it.
This my understanding as well. Temperature / heat generation varies with pressure and volume.
A contributor at Accurate Shooter has developed a spreadsheet which you can download to predict barrel life. One of the inputs to the formula he uses is the powder heat potential in KJ/Kg. There is a pop up selection table for popular powders. See copy below. It is an interesting concept as it suggests you can gain a fair amount of barrel life by using for example VV N165 instead of H4831 or Reloader 22. I guess it makes some sense if his formula multiplies powder weight time heat potential. It tells you how much total energy is in the boiler. Not sure where he got his numbers and if they are accurate though...
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Yes, you are technically correct. I changed my post to say energy instead of heat. However it is possible that the author of the spreadsheet was intending heat (or temperature), as he was trying to predict barrel burning, which would be determined by the temperature reached and how long it lasted. That in turn certainly would be determined by the amount of "energy in the boiler".
