Metal Combustion

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Introduction

• Combustion of metallic particles has numerous engineering applications 

• For instance, aluminum combustion can be used for:

  • Fuel-air explosive weapons​

  • Rocket propulsion systems

• Ignition and combustion involve a wide range of multi-physics effects 

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Research Details

• Development of a reduced model for aluminum particle combustion

• Summary of model main features: 

  • Kinetic-diffusion heterogenous reaction model

  • Single-step first-order Arrhenius reaction

  • Reactions initiated only above the melting point

  • Particle temperature cannot exceed the boiling point

• Incorporated in a Lagrangian-Eulerian approach 

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Collaborators

Sai Sandeep Dammati, Texas A&M University

Alexei Poludnenko​, University of Connecticut