Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp.

267273, 2001
Mathematical Combustion
Model of a Two-Component Gas Suspension
Including a Powder Combustible and a Powder Oxidizer
UDC 536.46 D. A. Yagodnikov
1
and A. N. Bobrov
1
Translated from Fizika Goreniya i Vzryva, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 2532, MayJune, 2001.
Original article submitted October 25, 1999; revision submitted November 10, 2000.
A mathematical model of the ignition and combustion of aluminum and ammonium
perchlorate powders in a propulsion system that takes into account their polydisperse
distribution and the dierence between the gas and disperse-phase velocities and tem-
peratures is developed. The eect of the pressure, the ratios between the components,
and the dispersivity of aluminum particles on the structure of a gas-disperse ame,
the basic characteristics of the combustion of a gas suspension, and the completeness
of propellant combustion is studied.
One direction of the development and updating of
propulsion systems and the development of gas-disperse
technologies is connected with the use of a gas suspen-
sion of the powder particles of a combustible and an ox-
idizer decomposed in a combustion wave as a working
body. The experimental studies [13] have shown the
possibility of occurring a stable working process in the
combustion chamber of a model propulsion system oper-
ating on the powder components of the propellant: alu-
minum + ammonium perchlorate (AP) and aluminum
+ polyethylene. For a comprehensive study of the spe-
cic features of the physicochemical interaction of a
powder combustible and a powder oxidizer under full-
scale conditions and also with the purpose to predict
the directions of subsequent experiments, a mathemati-
cal modeling directed to the determination of the char-
acteristics at which the stability of the working process
and the high degree of chemical-energy conversion in a
propulsion system operating on a two-component pow-
der propellant is needed.
The main goal of the present work is to develop
a mathematical model and an algorithm of calculating
the ignition and combustion parameters of a powder
combustible and a powder oxidizer, namely, aluminum
and ammonium perchlorate.
We consider separate stages of the combustible
oxidizer interaction. At rst, the AP particles are gasi-
1
Bauman Moscow State Technical University,
Moscow 107005.
ed owing to the heat and mass exchange with an igni-
tion source (special igniter or a return-ow zone lled
with high-temperature combustion products). The
thermodynamic gasication characteristics have been
examined in many studies (see, e.g., [4, 5]). In prac-
tice, the models with simplied mechanisms of decom-
position, according to which the process occurs par-
tially in a single-stage reaction with the formation of
nished products and it is also accompanied by disso-
ciative sublimation with subsequent combustion of NH
4
and HClO
4
in a primary ame around an AP particle
have found wide applications. The eective heats of the
reaction and the kinetic constants calculated with the
use of the combustion rate or the high-temperature de-
composition kinetics of pressed AP charges correspond
to each of these stages.
However, it is quite clear that the process of AP
gasication in a gas-disperse ow diers from that in
a layer or pressed charge, and the dierences can be
connected with the change in the conditions of particle
heating before the onset of gasication, the possibility
of particle fragmentation which is due to the interre-
lation of the deformation of a particle in ow and its
decomposition, the possibility of aming out a primary
ame from the surface of a high-velocity AP particle,
etc. Therefore, as the rst approximation, we use the
data on the kinetics of AP decomposition published in
[6], because the conditions under which they were ob-
tained most closely correspond to those adopted for the
0010-5082/01/3703-0267 $25.00 c 2001 Plenum Publishing Corporation 267
268 Yagodnikov and Bobrov
given problem and take into account the pressure and
the particle size.
We now consider the main specic features of the
combustion of aluminum particles in the products of
AP decomposition. The existence of two interrelated
stages, namely, preame heating (ignition) and vapor-
phase combustion, is common for the processes of in-
teraction of aluminum with dierent oxidizing media.
In the case considered, the problem is complicated by
the fact that various parallel reactions of interaction
between aluminum and the products of AP decompo-
sition (O
2
, H
2
O, and Cl
2
) can occur. Therefore, the
use of generalized results which describe the combus-
tion time of aluminum particles in the composition of
an AP-based solid propellant versus the determining pa-
rameters seems to be justied.
In modeling of a two-phase ow, it is necessary
to describe many physicochemical and thermal gas-
dynamic processes. In this formulation, being at the
boundary between gas dynamics and the theory of com-
bustion of disperse systems, the problem is extremely
complicated. In the present work, a one-dimensional
model solved in a two-continual formulation, when the
AP and aluminum particles can have the velocity and
the temperature dierent from the corresponding char-
acteristics of the gas phase is proposed. It is assumed
that the AP and aluminum particles arrive at the reac-
tion zone with the same velocities, forming a gas sus-
pension in it.
Not dwelling on the commonly adopted assump-
tions in detail, we note the following. Since a rareed
gas suspension is most often used in practice, we ignore
the contact interaction between the particles. The inter-
action of aluminum particles with an oxidizing medium
of complex composition occurs as a result of surface and
vapor-phase reactions. It is assumed in the work that
owing to the large content of oxidizing components in
the gas phase and also owing to the high initial tem-
perature of the gas (T
b
= 2400 K), which is equal to
the temperature in the return-ow zone of the model
combustion chamber [3], the heating rate of a particle
to the ignition temperature exceeds the crystallization
rate of the oxide lm. Therefore, one can consider that
the ignition characteristics do not depend on the crystal
structure of the oxide lm.
With allowance for the said above and on the ba-
sis of an analysis of experimental data on the kinetics
of AP decomposition and the ignition and combustion
of aluminum particles, a mathematical model that de-
scribes the change in the temperature and radius of the
particles can be presented by the following system of dif-
ferential equations obtained from the complete-enthalpy
and particle-mass balance equations:
for aluminum,
dr
s
dt
=
_

_
10
4
g exp
_

8500
T
s
_
, T
s
< 2300 K [7],
2.2 10
5
g
0.9
r
0.5
s
, T
s
= 2300 K [8],
(1)
dT
s
dt
=
_

_
3
r
s
c
s

s
_

s
q
s
dr
s
dt
Nu
T
s
T
2r
s
+
s
(T
4
T
4
s
)
_
, T
s
2300 K,
0, T
s
= 2300 K;
for ammonium perchlorate,
dr
p
dt
=
_

_
0 for T
p
< 600 K,
3.3 10
3
_
p
10
5
_
0.73
for
T
p
= 600 K, 10 r
p
80 m [6],
1.9 10
3
_
p
10
5
_
0.82
for
T
p
= 600 K, 80 r
p
180 m,
dT
p
dt
=
_

_
3
r
p

p
_

p
q
p
dr
p
dt
Nu
T
p
T
2r
p
+
p
(T
4
T
4
p
)
_
for T
p
600 K,
0 for T
p
= 600 K.
Here c, r, and (with subscripts) are the heat capacity,
radius, and density of a particle, respectively, is the
thermal conductivity, q is the thermal eect of the reac-
tion, g is the relative mass concentration of the oxidizing
components, p and T are, respectively, the pressure and
temperature of the gas phase (the parameter without a
subscript characterizes the entire gas phase), Nu is the
Nusselt criterion, and and are the degree of emis-
sivity of the particle surface and the StefanBoltzmann
constant, respectively; the subscripts s and p refer
to aluminum and AP, respectively.
The thermal eect of the reaction of aluminumAP
interaction is taken to be equal to q
s
= 8.62 MJ/kg [8].
The thermal eect of the reaction of AP decomposition
was calculated with the use of the dierence between
the enthalpy of AP formation (H
p
= 588.7 kJ/kg)
and the enthalpy of the equilibrium composition of the
AP decomposition products (calculated by means of the
universal Astra code [9]) and it was approximated by
the polynomial:
q
p
= 0.0016T
2
p
+ 0.841T
p
+ 3323.9 kJ/kg.
Combustion of a Gas Suspension Including Combustible and Oxidizer 269
Fig. 1. Particle number density.
The dynamic interaction of the phases was deter-
mined by the technique from [10] under the assumption
that the aerodynamic drag force prevails:
4
3
d
dt
(r
3
u)
s,p
= f(u u
s,p
)6r
s,p
,
f = 1 + 0.179Re
0.5
+ 0.013Re,
Re = |u
s,p
u|2r
s,p
/,
Nu = 2 + 0.6Pr
0.33
Re
0.5
, Pr = c/.
Here c, u, , and is the heat capacity, velocity, den-
sity, and dynamic viscosity of the gas, respectively, and
u
s,p
is the particle velocity (of aluminum or AP). In the
present paper, the polyfractional gas suspension simu-
lated by the dierential particle distribution (r
s,p
) is
considered. The forms of the distributions correspond
to the commercial powder aluminum (ASD-1 or ASD-
4) and AP (D-315) (Fig. 1). The known distribution
makes it possible to determine the total number of alu-
minum particles (N
s
) and AP particles (N
p
) from the
following relations:
N
s
=
_

i
(r
s,i
)r
3
s,i
4
3

s
_
1
m
0
s
,
N
p
=
_

j
(r
p,j
)r
3
p,j
4
3

p
_
1
m
0
p
.
Here m
0
is the initial total mass of the particles. The
subscripts i and j correspond to the fractions with a
xed initial radius of aluminum and AP particles, re-
spectively.
In the course of chemical reactions, the initial AP
and aluminum masses decrease with a simultaneous in-
crease in the degrees of burning-out. Mathematically,
this can be presented as follows:
The masses of the nonreacted aluminum and AP
are
m
s
=
4
3

s
N
s

i
(r
s,i
)r
3
s,i
,
m
p
=
4
3

p
N
p

j
(r
p,j
)r
3
p,j
;
The masses of the reacted aluminum and gasied
AP are
m
s
=
4
3

s
N
s

i
(r
s,i
)[(r
0
s,i
)
3
r
3
s,i
],
m
p
=
4
3

p
N
p

j
(r
p,j
)[(r
0
p,j
)
3
r
3
p,j
].
Here r
0
i
and r
0
j
are the initial radii of the aluminum and
AP particles (of the ith and jth fractions, respectively).
In the present paper, we use the model of averaged
one-dimensional ow of the gas phase which is aected
by the particles owing to point sources (outows) of
mass and heat. Here the thermodynamic equilibrium
of the gas phase (over the entire two-component gas
suspension) in each cross section is assumed. The heat
capacities of the gas phase and solid particles are as-
sumed to be equal, which allows one to pass from equa-
tions for the enthalpy to equations for the temperature.
Since the initial temperature and the temperature of
the products of AP combustion are taken to be equal,
in correspondence with the heat-balance equation, the
temperature variation in the system in an elementary
cell is determined by the mass of the burned-out alu-
minum. It is assumed that the outow of the gas-phase
mass (according to thermodynamic analysis, its compo-
sition does not almost vary) is connected with the sur-
face oxidation and burning-out of aluminum particles,
and the inow is connected with AP combustion. In
270 Yagodnikov and Bobrov
Fig. 2. Flame parameters for ASD-1-based (a) and ASD-4-based propellants (b): curves 14 refer to T,

G
s
,

, and
t
, respectively, for = 1.53 and p = 1 MPa.
Fig. 3. Change of the mass fraction of the c-phase along the ow: (a) eect of the pressure and dispersivity
of aluminum particles ( = 1.53): curve 1 refers to an ASD-1-based propellant for p = 1 MPa, curves 2 and
3 refer to an ASD-4-based propellant for p = 1 and 4 MPa, respectively; (b) eect of the excess-oxidizer
coecient of an ASD-4-based propellant for p = 2 MPa and = 0.5 (1), 1.53 (2), 3 (3), and 6 (4).
this connection, for the gas phase, the following system
can be written:
du
dt
=
4
D
2

d
dt
(m
p
Km
s
),
T = T
0
+ (T

T
0
)
s
, =
p
RT(1 z)
,
g =
_
g
0
1.9
m
p
m
0
s
+m
0
p
_

p
, (2)
z =
m
p
+m
0
s
(1
s
+ 51/27
s
)
m
0
s
+m
0
p
,

t
=
m
p
(m
0
s
m
s
)K
.
Here z is the mass fraction of the c-phase, R is the gas
constant, D is the diameter of the combustion chamber,
K = 2.614 is the mass stoichiometric ratio of the com-
ponents,
t
is the current value of the excess-oxidizer
coecient, and T

is the adiabatic combustion temper-

ature; the superscript 0 corresponds to the initial values
of the parameters. The completeness of aluminum com-
bustion and the completeness of AP gasication, which
enter (2), are calculated from the relations

s
= 1 m
s
/m
0
s
,
p
= 1 m
p
/m
0
p
.
The total completeness of conversion of the chem-
ical energy of a propellant is determined on the basis
of the ratio between the values of the ow-rate complex
obtained in this work and by means of the Astra code:

= /

[ =
_
RT(1 z)/A(k)].
Combustion of a Gas Suspension Including Combustible and Oxidizer 271
Fig. 4. Completeness of propellant combustion ver-
sus the pressure ( = 1.53): curves 1 and 2 refer to
ASD-4-based and ASD-1-based propellants, respec-
tively; solid curves refer to calculation, and dashed
curves to experiment [3].
Here
A(k) =
_
2
k + 1
_
1/(k1)
_
2k
k + 1
= 0.641
is the parameter of a supersonic gas ow calculated with
the use of the expansion parameter k = 1.16.
Systems (1) and (2) were solved by the nite-
dierence method under the following initial conditions:
t = 0: u
s
= u
p
= u
0
, T = T
b
, T
s
= T
0
s
= 300 K,
T
p
= T
0
p
= 300 K, g
0
= 0.54.
The values of the thermophysical parameters of the
gas phase are taken from [11] for molecular oxygen and
they are approximated by polynomials as the functions
of temperature. The necessary physicochemical charac-
teristics of aluminum and AP are taken from [8]. In the
calculations, the SI system is used: p is in Pa, r
s,p
is in
m, T is in K, and t is in sec.
In the general case, the problem considered con-
tains many geometrical and regime parameters imme-
diately entering the mathematical model and some of
them, namely, the diameter of the combustion cham-
ber (0.07 m), the initial supply rates of the components
(4 m/sec), and the temperature in the return-ow zone
(2400 K) are the same as in the experiments [3].
Figure 2 shows calculation results obtained for
the structure characteristics of the combustion zone of
D-315 AP and ASD-1 and ASD-4 aluminum powders.
The region x 0.1 is lled with a hot gas whose tem-
perature is T
b
= 2400 K, which corresponds to the
condition of continuous ignition of a mixture owing to
the heat exchange with a heat-release source, for exam-
ple, by the return-ow zone, which were experimentally
recorded in [3].
Fig. 5. Combustion temperature versus the excess-
oxidizer coecient (p = 0.5 MPa): curves 1 and
2 refer to ASD-4-based and ASD-1-based propellants,
respectively; points refer to the adiabatic combustion
temperature T

.
The values of the initial velocity of aluminum and
AP particles (u
0
s,p
= 4 m/sec) correspond to the veloc-
ity of a carrying gas necessary for pseudoliquefaction
and supply of the powder propellant components to the
combustion chamber of a propulsion system. According
to the experimental data from [3], the mass ow rate
of the carrying gas does not exceed 35% of the total
consumption of the propellant, and, hence, its inuence
on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the ow was ig-
nored. Thus, a gas suspension with a large content of
the c-phase enters the reaction zone (90%).
It is clear that, for the onset of ignition of the great
bulk of aluminum, it is necessary for have active oxidiz-
ing components in the gas phase. Precisely the presence
of such components as the products of AP decomposi-
tion specify the local value of the excess-oxidizer coe-
cient
t
. As the aluminum and AP particles move, their
heating occurs owing to the conductive and radiation
heat exchanges with the gas phase whose temperature
decreases. At a 600 K temperature of the AP particles,
their decomposition begins and, therefore, the value of

t
increases. Simultaneously, the process of interaction
of the aluminum particles with the formed decomposi-
tion products occurs. As a consequence, the gas supply
increases, and the c-phase fraction decreases (Fig. 3).
In the ame front, the largest values of the temperature
and heat-release gradients in the system (proportion-
ally to the mass ux of the reacted aluminum

G
s
) are
observed. Since the polyfractional compositions of the
combustible and the oxidizer are considered, the occur-
rence of both the surface and vapor-phase reactions is
possible in a xed cross section. As the experimental
results [8] show, the regime of aluminum reaction al-
ters at the moment of breaking of the continuity of the
272 Yagodnikov and Bobrov
Fig. 6. The total completeness of the propellant (a) and AP (b) combustion versus the excess-oxidizer coecient
(solid and dashed curves refer to ASD-1-based and ASD-4-based propellants, respectively) and the pressure [p = 2
(1) and 0.5 MPa (2)].
oxide lm or its removal from the surface of a particle
whose temperature is 2300 K and which does not al-
most change at the stage of combustion. The released
heat goes to heating of the gas phase.
Generally, the hydrodynamic pattern of combus-
tion and the prole of the main parameters depend on
the dispersivity of a powder combustible. In partic-
ular, for ASD-1 aluminum (with a wider spectrum of
particle sizes), the dependence

G
s
(x) is characterized
by two extrema (see Fig. 2a). At rst, the particles of
the ner fractions completely burn out and are gasied
and the rst maximum is shifted closer to the origin
of coordinates, and the second extremum, which is due
to the presence of coarse AP and aluminum particles
in the initial distribution, is on the descending branch
(see Fig. 1). For ASD-4, only one extremum was ob-
tained (see Fig. 2b). It is located in the vicinity of the
initial cross section, since the ner particles ignite and
burn out more rapidly. For the same reason, with other
conditions being equal, the completeness of combustion
increases by 48.4% and the temperature of the gas sus-
pension increases by 41.6% at the exit of the combustion
chamber.
From the practical viewpoint, of greatest interest
are the data on the eect of the size of aluminum par-
ticles, the ratio between the components, and the pres-
sure on the ignition and combustion characteristics of
a two-component gas suspension. We analyze these de-
pendences in more detail.
With increase in pressure, the mass and heat trans-
fer in the gasparticle system becomes more intense and,
hence, the period of ignition induction becomes smaller.
Moreover, as the pressure rises, the rate of AP gasica-
tion increases [6] and the aluminum particles begin to
interact earlier with the oxidizing medium. This may
be interpreted as the increase in the characteristic res-
idence time in the combustion chamber. All this leads,
rst, to a decrease in the content of the c-phase in the
combustion products (see Fig. 3a) owing to increased
gas supply to the system and, second, to an increase
in the total degree of conversion of the chemical energy
of a two-component powder propellant (Fig. 4). Fig-
ure 4 also shows experimental results [3]. One can see
that, for an ASD-4-based propellant, the experimental
and theoretical data agree satisfactorily, and a signi-
cant discrepancy is observed in the case where ASD-1
aluminum is used, especially at p > 1 MPa. This can be
explained by large losses caused by incomplete burning-
out of the propellant under experimental conditions.
The data obtained on the eect of the dispersivity of
aluminum particles have an obvious explanation: the
ne aluminum particles are heated and burn out more
rapidly, thus accelerating the gasication of AP parti-
cles, and they allow one to obtain larger values of

on a xed length of the combustion chamber.

An important practical conclusion follows from
the results obtained. Since the eciency of the use
of a metal-containing propellant is proportional to
_
RT(1 z) [8], the decrease in z with increase in p and
and with decrease in the average sizes of aluminum
particles, the pulse characteristics of a propulsion sys-
tem that goes on a two-component powder propellant
increase.
The calculations have shown that, for the poorly
disperse ASD-1 aluminum, the gas temperature at the
right boundary of the ame (Fig. 5) increases with the
excess-oxidizer coecient relative to the stoichiometric
composition. In contrast, for the highly disperse ASD-
4 aluminum, a weakly expressed extremum displaced
to the depleted-mixture region ( 1.52) relative to
the stoichiometric composition is observed. It is note-
worthy that this coordinate does not correspond to the
maximum of the equilibrium temperature of AP and
aluminum combustion ( 0.87).
The increase in temperature upon depletion of the
gas suspension also leads to an increase in the total
Combustion of a Gas Suspension Including Combustible and Oxidizer 273
completeness of propellant combustion (Fig. 6a), be-
cause the mass and heat transfers are intensied upon
heating of the aluminum and AP particles. Since the
degree of AP gasication practically does not depend
on (Fig. 6b), the working process is intensied by in-
creased completeness of aluminum combustion. As a
consequence, the fraction of the c-phase in the combus-
tion products (see Fig. 3b) decreases, which can increase
the eciency of the use of a propulsion system which
runs on a two-component powder propellant irrespec-
tively of the particle size. The dependence of

on the
dispersivity of aluminum particles is similar to that con-
sidered above: the completeness of combustion of the
ASD-4-based propellant is greater compared to that of
the ASD-1-based propellant. However, as the pressure
rises, the dierence decreases owing to the fact that the
dependence

(p) is stronger for ASD-1 aluminum.

CONCLUSIONS
A mathematical model of the ignition and com-
bustion of a gas suspension of aluminum and ammo-
nium perchlorate powders that takes into account their
polydisperse distribution, the dierence between the ve-
locities and temperatures of the gas and disperse phases
and which permits one to study the eect of the pres-
sure, the ratio between the components, and the dis-
persibility of an aluminum powder on the main ignition
and combustion characteristics of a gas suspension has
been developed.
In designing a propulsion system that runs on a
two-component powder propellant, the excess-oxidizer
coecient should be greater than unity, since this allows
one to increase the completeness of combustion of the
propellant mixture and decrease the content of the c-
phase in the combustion products.
This work was supported by the Ministry of Gen-
eral and Professional Education of the Russian Federa-
tion (Grant No. GR-1/99 MAI).
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