2, 1998
Translated from Fizika Goreniya i Vzryva, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 108-113, Maxch-April, 1998.
Original article submitted January 9, 1997.
I g n i t i o n o f m i x t u r e s o f m e t a l p o w d e r s w i t h liquid h y d r o c a r b o n fuels in a n a t m o s p h e r e
of p u r e o x y g e n a n d air b e h i n d reflected shock waves is s t u d i e d e x p e r i m e n t a l l y . It is
shown t h a t t h e i g n i t i o n delays for t h e m i x t u r e s are d e t e r m i n e d b y t h e liquid phase~
a n d t h e t i m e s o f c o m b u s t i o n a r e p r i m a r i l y d e t e r m i n e d b y t h e p a r t i c l e size o f t h e solid
phase.
Because of the explosion hazard of powder materials, considerable attention has been given to the
investigation of ignition and combustion of dust suspensions in shock waves (SW). The most important
characteristics are dependences of the ignition delays tign on the gas-phase temperature and oxygen
concentration. Most of the empirical data are obtained in studies under stationary conditions, i.e., in
heated quartz tubes, burners, etc. These studies revealed the main kinetic mechanism of oxidation for
a large number of metals with a low temperature of
ignition and a high calorific value (Al, Mg, Ti, Zn,
Mn, etc.), various organic dusts, and liquid aerosols.
In these studies, the heating rate was rather low and
the measured ignition delays far exceeded those observed in shock tubes. However, to calculate the ignition delays in SW, one should know the kinetics of
metal oxidation during the time of existence of SW
and not within seconds or minutes, as is usually the
case under stationary conditions.
A rather small number of papers (see, for example, [1, 2]) have been devoted to the ignition characteristics of suspensions of liquids and solids in gases
behind incident and reflected SW. The main goal
of these studies was to establish the detonatability
of various heterogeneous mixtures, which is determined from comparison of values of tign for dustgas mixtures with those for gas mixtures taken as
the standard. Most of the available empirical data
on the ignition delays of metal dusts in SW are explained by the mechanism of heat exchange with the
1Institute of Theoretical and Applied Meci~anics,
Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Novosibirsk 630090.
215
216
Boiko
and
Poplavskii
Fig. 1. Streak records of ignition of suspensions in oxygen: T5 = 1370 K a n d p5 = 2.6 MPa; a) 2 m g pure tridecane;
b) 2 mg tridecane + 0.2 m g Mg; c) 2 mg tridecane + 2 mg Mg; d) 2 nag tridecane + 1 mg AI.
Fig. 2. Streak records of ignition of suspensions: Ts = 1200 K and p5 = 4.2 MPa; a) oxygen -}- tridecane + Al; b) air
+ tridecane + AI; c) air "t" isopropylnitrate + A1.
EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUE
In the present work, we continue previous studies [3-5] and use the methods described there,
namely, pulsed multiframe shadowgraphs and photochronography, to record the spatial-temporal pattern of ignition of dusty gases behind SW at the level
of individual particles.
The radiation of burning particles was recorded
through a 4 x 100 mm glass window by a ZhFR-1
camera operating in the nominal regime of a photochronograph. To synchronize the process with the
moment of arrival of the SW at the reflecting wall
and to introduce a time scale, we used a laser stroboscope. The first laser pulse appeared 100/~sec after
the arrival of a signal from the piezotransducer installed on the reflecting wall. Images of light marks
are visible in the bottom part of the streak records.
Experiments were performed with the following
metal-dust specimens:
ASD-l-type aluminum powder 99.2% pure with
spherical particles scattered into narrow fractions
by an air-centrifugal qualifier; fractions of 3-5 and
10-14/~m were used;
spheroidized magnesium powder with a particle
size of 40--63/~m produced by screening.
The
combustible liquids were kerosene, isopropylnitrate
(C3HvNO2), and tridecane (n-C13H2s)' - - a chemically pure saturated hydrocarbon that enters into
the composition of kerosenes and other liquid fuels.
217
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The influence of the HIL on the preignition heating of metal particles in reflected SW was investigated by stages. Initially, concentrations typical of
suspensions were used, and then the liquid fraction
of the system was decreased to ~ < 10 -2, at which
only a small fraction of the specimen is wetted with
a HIL.
I g n i t i o n of Suspensions. A liquid mixture of
a hydrocarbon fuel and a powder was used as a model
object, because the breakup and ignition of the liquid
component of this system in a SW was previously investigated in detail by the authors [6, 7]. In the series
of experiments described here, a drop of the suspension with a constant mass of tridecane of 2 mg was
placed in a cup, which was fixed on a thin tungsten
wire and installed at the level of the channel axis
of a shock tube 70 mm from the reflecting wall. The
mixture was sprayed in an incident SW, and ignition
of the spray was observed in a reflected SW.
Figure 1 shows typical camera streak records of
this process. The experiments were carried out under
the same conditions at a temperature and pressure
of oxygen in the reflected SW equal to Ts = 1370 K
and p5 = 2.6 MPa, respectively, for an incident-SW
Mach number M = 3. The temperature was equal
to the critical temperature of Mg ignition. From the
streak records presented it is evident that
ignition is observed for pure tridecane and suspensions containing not only Mg but also Al, for which
the ignition temperature (Ter ~ 1800 K) is much
higher than T5 behind the reflected SW;
w the ignition delays of the suspensions are determined by the liquid, and the metal-powder particles
in the spray are ignited 20--40 psec later;
the combustion time for the suspension is larger
than the combustion time for a drop of the pure liquid and is determined by the particle size and the
amount of powder in the drop.
A similar picture was observed for the other
HIL such as kerosene, isopropylnitrate, etc. But it
is more significant that, in the presence of HIL, aluminum is ignited at even lower temperatures of oxygen (Fig. 2a) and in air (Fig. 2b). Figure 2 illustrates
ignition of suspensions in the case where the gas temperature and pressure behind the reflected SW are
Ts = 1200 K and ps -- 4.2 MPa, respectively, and
the incident-SW Mach number M = 2.8. At these
SW parameters, aluminum is also ignited with isopropylnitrate. In this case, the ignition delay is half
that in the case of tridecane, which agrees well with
the behavior of the pure liquids.
Summarizing the above facts, we note the following:
218
Boiko a n d Poplavskii
Fig. 3. Streakrecords of ignition of aluminumpowder and a liquid initiating component in air with separate placement of
them (Ts = 1500 K and Ps = 2.0 MPa).
- -
o n t h e I g n i t i o n o f M e t a l P o w d e r s in S h o c k W a v e s
219
phase, and the combustion times are determined primarily by the degree of dispersion of the solid phase.
This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research (Grant No. 96-0101886).
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