Modeling of Micro Aluminum Particle Flames Using Particle Burning Time

ABSTRACT

This work presents a Lagrangian model, referred to as the integral model in this study, for aluminum-dust combustion, with the intent to reduce the computational burden and numerical stiffness. A comparison with available experimental data and a detailed model explicitly resolving chemical kinetics is presented for the canonical case of a planar flame. The influence of particle diameter, dust concentration and fresh-gases temperature on the flame speed and flame temperature is presented. Most results are within experimental uncertainties, unfortunately significant for aluminum-dust flames. Paths for improvements are proposed when needed. Regarding computational burden, it is shown that the integral model is faster and more robust than its counterpart using chemical kinetics. Insights on polydisperse flows and validation with constant volume combustion cases are provided. This study paves the way for a use in more complex cases such as turbulent flames or afterburning in energetic materials.

KEYWORDS:

• Aluminum combustion
• burning time
• premixed flame
• micro particles
• numerical modeling

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) of the French Ministry of Armed Forces for their financial support. This work was performed using HPC resources from CALMIP [Grant 2020-18041].