Observations on the combustion of boron slurry droplets in air

✍ Scribed by P. Antaki; F.A. Williams

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 537 KB
• Volume: 67
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-2180
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-2180(87)90009-5

✦ Synopsis

Single fiber-supported slurry droplets composed of boron in JP-10 were ignited and burned in room-temperature air. Initial droplet diameters ranged from 1.2 to 3.0 mm and initial boron weight fractions f from 0 to 0.7. It was observed that although the liquid fuel apparently burns completely the boron does not ignite under these experimental conditions. For the pure liquid the combustion is smooth with a measured burning-rate constant of 0.43 mm2/s. At low f there is periodic swelling of the droplet with mildly disruptive emission of gas from the interior; the severity of this irregularity is greatest forf ~ 0.1 and negligible forf >~ 0.2. Forf <~ 0.4 a reduction in droplet diameter, according to a d 2 law, is observed for a period of time, followed by a burning period of essentially constant diameter. For f -> 0.5, the droplet diameter remains practically constant during combustion, although the measured burning time conforms to a d 2 law. These observations are compared quantitatively with theoretical predictions and are found to agree within accuracies ranging from 10% to 25%.