Combustion behavior of nano-composite aluminum iron oxide

Date

2004-05

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

Bum rates of nano-scale aluminum (Al) powders mixed with iron oxide (Fe2O3) were measured as a function of Fe2O3 synthesis technique and fuel/oxidizer composition. Three reactant synthesis techniques were examined; two focused on sol-gel processing of nano-scale Fe2O3 particles and the third utilized commercially available nano-scale Fe203 powder. Nano-scale aluminum particles (52.7 nm in diameter) were combined with each oxidizer in various proportions. One goal was to determine the equivalence ratio corresponding to the maximum bum rate. The bum rates of five different nanocomposites of Al/Fe203 were compared. Flame propagation was studied by igniting low density mixtures and taking data photographically with a high-speed camera. Both open and confined burning was examined. Results indicated that the bum rate was a strong function of the stoichiometry of the mixture. An Equivalence ratio of 1.4 provides an optimum bum rate regardless of oxidizer synthesis technique. The magnitude of the bum rate is also a strong function of the oxidizer synthesis technique. Oxidizers processed using the sol-gel technology originally contained impurities which retarded the bum rates. When the same oxidizers were annealed at high temperatures, the new heat-treated oxidizer showed a dramatic improvement, with bum rates on the order of 900 m/s. The results of this work ultimately optimized the sol-gel synthesis process for preparing thermites.

Description

Keywords

Military research, Thermionic converters -- Analysis, Aluminum oxide, Nanotechnology, Heat -- Transmission, Ferric oxide, Diffusion, Heat -- Convection

Citation