Modified Burning Rates of Aqueous HAN Solutions Containing Methanol and Metal Oxides

摘要

The linear burning rates of aqueous HAN solutions containing various additives were observed in a strand burner at pressures between 3 and 22 MPa using a previously verified pressure-based method. The baseline aqueous solution contained 82.4% HAN by weight, methanol was added at 7.5% and 14.9%, and fumed silica powder and titania nanoparticles were added at 1% each. Baseline burning rates and light emission phenomena compared favorably with similar solutions studied using more-complex optical techniques. The addition of 7.5% methanol decreased linear burning rates by as much as 39%, while 14.9% methanol resulted in burning rates that could be over 12.5 times faster than the baseline rates. Fumed silica and titania nanoparticles yielded increased linear burning rates that were up to 7.3 and 5.5 times faster than the baseline rates, respectively. All tested mixtures exhibited drastic changes in burning behavior between certain pressure regimes, and methanol addition caused the greatest deviation from the baseline burning rate curve. The current study expands the range of pressures tested for aqueous HAN solutions while exploring the use of metal oxide additives to tailor combustion behavior without radically altering the burning curve shape, with the future goal of creating and testing nanofluid HAN/methanol suspensions.