Study on laser ignition and combustion characteristics of micron-sized aluminum and Al-Mg alloys particles

Abstract In response to the problems of easy sintering and long ignition delay time of micron aluminum in the combustion of aluminum-containing propellants, choose the way to add magnesium to metal aluminum to construct an alloy system, through boiling, micro-explosions are generated during the ignition and combustion process to weaken the sintering behavior and shorten the ignition delay time of aluminum. Selecting aluminum and Al-Mg alloy powder fuel with a particle diameter of about 10 μm as the research object, a set of individual-particle fuel laser ignition and microscopic high-speed imaging experimental devices was built that can observe the whole process of ignition and combustion of micron-sized fuel. Thermal analysis was used to detect and characterize the thermal decomposition process of micron-sized aluminum and Al-Mg alloy powders; combined with the results of scanning electron microscopy, the difference in ignition performance of micron-sized individual particle aluminum and Al-Mg alloys was studied. Experiments have found that, compared with aluminum, the initial oxidation temperature of Al-Mg alloys is lower and the combustion is more complete. However, the effect of adding magnesium to aluminum is only reflected before 900 °C. The ignition and combustion images and flame propagation laws of micron-sized single-particle aluminum and Al-Mg alloys were obtained. It was found that adding magnesium shortened the ignition delay time, and the combustion produced less residual.