Statistical model for combustion of high-metal magnesium-based hydro-reactive fuel

Abstract

We investigate experimentally and analytically the combustion behavior of a high-metal magnesium-based hydro-reactive fuel under high temperature gaseous atmosphere. The fuel studied in this paper contains 73% magnesium powders. An experimental system is designed and experiments are carried out in both argon and water vapor atmospheres. It is found that the burning surface temperature of the fuel is higher in water vapor than that in argon and both of them are higher than the melting point of magnesium, which indicates the molten state of magnesium particles in the burning surface of the fuel. Based on physical considerations and experimental results, a mathematical one-dimensional model is formulated to describe the combustion behavior of the high-metal magnesium-based hydro-reactive fuel. The model enables the evaluation of the burning surface temperature, the burning rate and the flame standoff distance each as a function of chamber pressure and water vapor concentration. The results predicted by the model show that the burning rate and the surface temperature increase when the chamber pressure and the water vapor concentration increase, which are in agreement with the observed experimental trends.