Combustion mechanism of HMX

Abstract

AbstractThe combustion wave structure and thermal decomposition process of HMX were examined in order to elucidate the burning rate characteristics of HMX. The combustion wave can be divided into three zones: nonreactive solid‐phase, surface reaction, and gas‐phase reaction zones. Measurements with micro‐thermocouples revealed that the heat flux produced in the surface reaction zone is approximately equal to the heat flux transferred back from the gas phase to the burning surface. Accordingly, the reaction process in the suface reaction and the gas phase zones plays a dominant role in the burning rate of HMX. The gas phase reaction zone consists of a two‐stage reaction process: the first stage is the exothermic rapid reaction process between NO2 and aldchydes, and the second stage is the exothermic slow reaction process between NO and N2O and remaining fuel species. The luminous flame zone which is determined to be the second stage reaction process approaches rapidly the burning surface as pressure increases. However, the luminous flame reaction appears to be little responsible for the burning rate of HMX.Examinations of the quenched burning surface of HMX samples revealed that the burning surface melts and forms a noncrystallized intermediate material. The surface structure appears to be different from the structure of thermally degraded HMX samples which were obtained by a thermogravnmetric analysis.