Conventional energetic materials which are based on monomolecular compounds such as trinitrotoluene (TNT) have relatively low volumetric energy density. The energy density can be significantly enhanced by the addition of metal particulates. Among all metals, aluminum is popular because of its high oxidation enthalpy, low cost, and relative safety. Micron-sized aluminum particles, which have relatively high ignition temperatures and burning times, have been most commonly employed. Ignition of micron-sized aluminum particles is typically achieved only upon melting of the oxide shell at 2350 K, thereby resulting in fairly high ignition delay. Novel approaches to reduce the ignition temperatures and burning times and enhance the energy content of the particle are necessary.
Recently, there has been an enormous interest in nano-materials due to their unique physicochemical properties such as lower melting and ignition temperatures and shorter burning times. Favorably, tremendous developments in the synthesis technology of nano-materials have also been made in the recent past. Several metal-based energetic materials with nano-sized particles such as nano-thermites, nano-fluids, and metalized solid propellants are being actively studied. The “green” reactive mixture of nano-aluminum particles and water/ice mixture (ALICE) is being explored for various applications such as space and underwater propulsion, hydrogen generation, and fuel-cell technology. Strand burning experiments indicate that the burning rates of nano-aluminum and water mixtures surpass those of common energetic materials such as ammonium dinitramide (ADN), hydrazinium nitroformate (HNF), and cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX). Sufficient understanding of key physicochemical phenomena is, however, not present. Furthermore, the most critical parameters that dictate the burning rate have not been identified. A multi-zone theoretical framework is established to predict the burning properties and flame structure by solving conservation equations in each zone and enforcing the mass and energy continuities at the interfacial boundaries. An analytical expression for the burning rate is derived and physicochemical parameters that dictate the flame behavior are identified. An attempt is made to elucidate the rate-controlling combustion mechanism. The effect of bi-modal particle size distribution on the burning rate and flame structure are investigated. The results are compared with the experimental data and favorable agreement is achieved.
The ignition and combustion characteristics of micron-sized aluminum particles can also be enhanced by replacing the inert alumina layer with favorable metallic coatings such as nickel. Experiments indicate that nickel-coated aluminum particles ignite at temperatures significantly lower than the melting point of the oxide film, 2350 K due to the presence of inter-metallic reactions. Nickel coating is also attractive for nano-sized aluminum particles due to its ability to maximize the active aluminum content. Understanding the thermo-chemical behavior of nickel-aluminum core-shell structured particles is of key importance to both propulsion and material synthesis applications. The current understanding is, however, far from complete. In the present study, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the melting behavior, diffusion characteristics, and inter-metallic reactions in nickel-coated nano-aluminum particles. Particular emphasis is on the effects of core size and shell thickness on all important phenomena. The properties of nickel-coated aluminum particles and aluminum-coated nickel particles are also compared.
Considerable uncertainties pertaining to the ignition characteristics of nano-aluminum particles exist. Aluminum particles can spontaneously burn at room temperature, a phenomenon known as pyrophoricity. This is a major safety issue during particle synthesis, handling, and storage. The critical particle size below which nascent particles are pyrophoric is not well known. Energy balance analysis with accurate evaluation of material properties (including size dependent properties) is performed to estimate the critical particle size for nascent particles. The effect of oxide layer thickness on pyrophoricity of aluminum particles is studied. The ignition delay and ignition temperature of passivated aluminum particles are also calculated. Specific focus is placed on the effect of particle size. An attempt is made to explain the weak dependence of the ignition delay on particle size at nano-scales.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/50225 |
| Date | 13 January 2014 |
| Creators | Sundaram, Dilip Srinivas |
| Contributors | Yang, Vigor |
| Publisher | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | Georgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
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