THERMODYNAMIC MODELLING OF CONVENTIONAL AND PYROTECHNIC IGNITER COMPOSITIONS

摘要

QinetiQ, funded by the UK Ministry of Defence, is participating in a EUROPA Technical Arrangement on Ignition Phenomena. In this project, QinetiQ is concentrating on conventional ignition of solid gun propellants. A key requirement in understanding the mechanisms causing propellant ignition is to characterise the reaction products from the igniter. There are various energy transfer processes that may contribute towards ignition: radiation, conduction and convection from hot gases, radiation and conduction from solid particles, and energy transfer via the latent heat of species condensing onto the propellant surface. Therefore it is important to know the type and distribution of product species from the combustion of the igniter material. This paper describes the application of the NASA-Lewis CEA2 (Chemical Equilibrium and Applications) code to model a number of igniter mixes to determine the product species and, in particular, the energy released due to phase changes. The igniter mixes modelled include black powder and thermites.