Abstract
A series of model rocket engine combustion experiments were conducted in order to investigate the combustion characteristics of slurry propellant containing aluminum particles. The fuels used were traditional liquid JP-10, JP-10-based slurry with 21-wt% loadings of nano-sized aluminum particles and JP-10-based slurry with 12-wt% loadings of micro-sized aluminum hydride composite particles. The differences in the combustion characteristic between the slurry and the pure fuel were analyzed. The oxygen-to-fuel ratios were set to be 1.6~2.0. The results showed that compared with pure JP-10, the JP-10-based slurries presented obviously lower mass specific impulse and combustion efficiency, due to the special aggregation phenomenon of metal particles in the process of atomization and combustion. However, the JP-10-based slurries achieved a higher density specific impulse by 5.5% to 14.6% compared to pure JP-10, because the metalized propellant has higher density. It was also found that the ignition delay of the slurry fuels was slightly shorter than that of the pure JP-10 fuel and it proved that the addition of metal particles has a positive effect on the propellant ignition performance. In addition, condensed combustion products are sampled in the jet plume behind the exit nozzles to analyze the components of products. By means of the energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM), it was found that 64%~74% aluminum was oxidized in the tests, and the solid particles are mainly spherical and in size of 500nm~3mm.
Translated title of the contribution | Experimental Study on Combustion Characteristic of Rocket Engine Based on Slurry Propellant Containing Aluminum Particles |
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Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
Pages (from-to) | 1650-1659 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Tuijin Jishu/Journal of Propulsion Technology |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2018 |
Externally published | Yes |