Preparation and characterization of energetic Al-Mg mechanical alloy powders

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Abstract

Metals such as Al and Mg have high combustion enthalpies and they are widely used as additives in energetic materials for propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics. However, long ignition delays and slow combustion kinetics limit their current applications. An approach suggested in this work is to design new metal-based materials in which pre-determined phase changes will occur and trigger ignition at a desired temperature and also accelerate the rate of heat release during combustion. As a first step, metastable solid solutions of Mg in Al (10-50% of Mg) have been produced by mechanical alloying. The ignition temperatures of the produced alloys in air were determined using digital imaging and three-color pyrometry of the electrically heated filaments coated with different alloy powders. Combustion of mechanical alloys in air was studied using a laminar, premixed flame aerosol burner. The ignition temperatures were around 1,000 K, much lower than the pure aluminum ignition temperature of about 2,300 K. The steady flames of mechanical alloy powders were produced at lower equivalence ratios and had higher propagation velocities than similar pure aluminum powder flames. Phase compositions of the combustion products were determined using X-ray diffraction. In addition to Al2O3 and MgO, significant amounts of Al2MgO4 were found in experiments. © 2002 The Combustion Institute.

Identifier

0036174480 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Combustion and Flame

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-2180(01)00351-0

ISSN

00102180

First Page

259

Last Page

269

Issue

3

Volume

128

Grant

N000140010446

Fund Ref

Office of Naval Research

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