LUMINOUS FLAME AND AGGLOMERATE DIAMETER OF AGGLOMERATED ALUMINUM PARTICLES IN AP/HTPB COMPOSITE PROPELLANTS: EFFECTS OF PRESSURE

摘要

Aluminum particles are used as a metal fuel of solid propellants for the purpose of increasing performance. Aluminum particles agglomerate in the reaction zone of composite propellants. Agglomerated aluminum particle diameters are larger than the initial diameters of the constituent particles. The combustion time of aluminum particles is proportional to the square of initial diameter. Agglomerated aluminum particles affect the combustion efficiency by increasing combustion time. To increase the combustion efficiency, it is necessary to study how agglomerated aluminum particles combust. In this study, we investigated the agglomerate diameter and the luminous flame diameter with pressure as a parameter. When the pressure increased, the agglomerate diameter and the luminous flame diameter decreased. However, the ratio of the luminous flame diameter to the agglomerate diameter depended very little on pressure.