Effect of flow conditions on burn rates of metal particles

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Abstract

Micron-sized aluminum and titanium powder particles were carried by an air flow into a focal point of a CO2 laser beam and ignited. In different experiments, the ignited particles continued to burn in laminar or turbulent flow conditions. A computational fluid dynamic model was used to describe characteristics of the turbulent flow. Particle burn times and temperatures were measured optically. Effect of turbulent flow conditions was observed on combustion characteristics for both aluminum and titanium powders. For both powders, luminous combustion streaks became shorter. For aluminum, the brightness of the streak and the optically measured temperature were also substantially reduced in the turbulent flow conditions. For titanium, reduction in both streak brightness and temperature were minor for different flow conditions. Compared to the laminar flows, the burn rates of aluminum and titanium were observed to increase more than 4 and 2 times, respectively, in the turbulent flows. Simple empirical correlations are proposed for both metals enabling one to predict the increase in the metal particle mass burn rate for turbulent flow conditions taking into account the particle size and such flow characteristics as Kolmogorov length scale and average kinetic energy.

Identifier

84971497583 (Scopus)

Publication Title

2016 Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute Essci 2016

Grant

HDTRA1-14-1-0024

Fund Ref

Defense Threat Reduction Agency

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