Investigation on aluminum particles combustion in the flame of solid rocket propellants

Aluminum is widely used in modern solid rocket propellants for many purposes, but mainly to increase the specific impulse by raising the flame temperature. Most of the aluminum present in the powder state in the propellant does not vaporize on the burning surface, tending later to agglomerate into large particles difficult to burn even in the flame. The aim of this work is to study the behavior of the aluminum particles on the burning surface and in the gaseous region of the propellant flame structure. Different diagnostic techniques have been used: SEM on the burning surface of extinguished samples, pictures taken during combustion by filtered still camera, and a newly developed laser diagnostic. By the use of an UV laser beam and a high-speed-shutter TV camera, the Al particles on the burning surface have been visualized. A suitable image processor to extract information from the frames has been adopted. Tests on an HTPB. 12/AP.68/Al.20 propellant in the pressure range 10–50 atm have been performed. Results show the reliability of the diagnostics used here and have contributed to a better characterization of the tested propellant.