The flame structure of AP/HTPB sandwiches

The ultraviolet flame emissions observed in the experiments show a correspondence with the fuel-rich region of the flame, as determined with a Schvab-Zeldovich model. This is reasonable since the primary sources of ultraviolet emission in the 305--315 nm region, electronically excited OH and the CO + O reaction, are dependent on fuel related species. The growth of the fuel-rich region with increasing Peclet number, predicted by the model, is qualitatively matched by the experimental results. The predicted shrinkage of the fuel-rich region when the binder layer is diluted with fine AP is also qualitatively matched by the experiments. Comparison of the experimental results with a single-reaction model with finite rate kinetics shows a weak qualitative agreement on the influence of Damkohler number. A large increase in Damkohler number (factor of 20) leads to a strong splitting of the calculated reaction zone and a splitting of the base of the high temperature region. This seems to correspond to the splitting of the ultraviolet emission flame base observed in the experiments.