METAL COMBUSTION PROCESSES. Aeornautical Engineering Laboratory Report No. 473

Since the light metallic elements undoubtedly will play a greater and greater role as propellants in advanced chemical and nuclear-chemical propulsion systems, interest in their burning characteristics is increasing. Presented here are some preliminary conclusions on burning characteristics. These conclusions are based on fundamental physical considerations and not on experimental results. An analytical approach to calculate the burning rate of metals is also suggested. This approach differs from the diffusion-droplet approach in that it includes radiation feed-back and loss terms. Such terms can be important at the high temperatures of the diffusion film surrounding a burning metal. (auth)