Numerical simulation of combustion of the composite solid propellant containing bidispersed boron powder

A problem of combustion of the composite solid propellants containing various powders of metals and non-metals is relevant in terms of studying the effect of various compositions of powders on the linear rate of propellant combustion. One of the lines of research is to determine the effect of the addition of a boron powder on the burning rate of a composite solid propellant. This work presents the results of numerical simulation of combustion of the composite solid propellant containing bidispersed boron powder. Physical and mathematical formulation of the problem is based on the approaches of the mechanics of two-phase reactive media. To determine the linear burning rate, the Hermance model of combustion of composite solid propellants is used, based on the assumption that the burning rate is determined by mass fluxes of the components outgoing from the propellant surface. The solution is performed numerically using the breakdown of an arbitrary discontinuity algorithm. The dependences of the linear burning rate of the composite solid propellant on the dispersion of the boron particles and gas pressure above the propellant surface are obtained. It is shown that the burning rate of the composite solid propellant with bidispersed boron powder changes in contrast to that of the composite solid propellant with monodispersed powder. This fact proves that the powder dispersion should be taken into account when solving the problems of combustion of the composite solid propellants containing reactive particles.