Measurement of the temperature of burning aluminum particles using multi-spectral pyrometry

ABSTRACT

Aluminum is used in the composition of many high explosives and contributes to their blast effect. This work focuses on the study of the combustion of a single isolated particle of size between 30 and 100 µm in an arbitrary atmosphere, whose pressure and composition are chosen to be close to those encountered in a high-explosive fireball. This gaseous atmosphere is still largely unreferenced, and this work aims to provide a better understanding of combustion in this environment. The use of an electrostatic levitator coupled with multi-spectral pyrometric diagnostics enables us to select a single particle and measure its temperature during combustion. Photomultipliers (PMs) are used to follow the temporal evolution of the particle’s light emission during combustion. In this work, we also used PMs as pyrometric devices to measure temperature. The diagnostic allows us to determine the temporal evolution of the integrated temperature of the condensed phase during combustion of the aluminum particle. By way of example, a temperature of 3300K was obtained for the combustion of Al in air at 1 bar. The data collected will also be used to verify the assumptions made in the combustion models (e.g. temperature stability during combustion).

KEYWORDS:

• Combustion
• aluminum
• temperature
• pyrometer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).