Burning Rates of Nanoaluminum–Water Solid Propellants at Various Pressures

Abstract

The burning rates of solid propellants comprising different nanoaluminum powders and distilled water were examined at pressurized conditions up to . Several aluminum powders were tested using a strand burner technique: uncoated nanopowder (ALEX), stearic-acid coated nanopowder (L-ALEX), Viton-coated nanopowder (V-ALEX) with two different particle sizes, and bimodal mixture of V-ALEX and micrometer-size powders. Propellants containing ALEX, L-ALEX, and bimodal compositions followed the power law relation throughout the pressure range, with pressure exponents of , 0.5, and 0.28, respectively. Propellants containing V-ALEX powder demonstrated two different regimes: at pressures lower than 1.8 MPa, the burning rates were constant with respect to pressure; whereas for higher pressures, the burning rates followed the power law relation with and for powder diameters of 60 and 100 nm, respectively. The combustion efficiency, defined as the fraction of aluminum that oxidized during combustion, showed high values (90–95%) for all tested compositions.