Abstract
Metal combustion is one of the main issues threatening service safety in oxygen-enriched atmospheres, leading to unexpected explosions in rocket engines. This paper reviews the recent development of metals combustion in oxygen-enriched atmospheres. Test methods under three typical conditions and combustion behaviors of three typical metals are mainly discussed. The microstructures of the combustion areas of tested samples in stainless steels, nickel superalloys, and titanium alloys are similar, containing an oxide zone, a melting zone, and a heat-affected zone. The development trend of metal combustion in oxygen-enriched atmospheres in the future is also forecasted.
Highlights
With the development of technology, metals should meet the more and more strict requirements used in extreme environments
Another case happened in the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1992 when the shims and pistons made from 316 stainless steel combusted in a 35 MPa oxygen pressure atmospheres, which led to the explosion of the testbed
In order to reduce the probability of the fire, the metallic materials should be tested the temperature of metal increases, followed by ignition
Summary
With the development of technology, metals should meet the more and more strict requirements used in extreme environments. Some metallic materials are difficult to be ignited in air but burn dramatically or even reach the explosive limit in oxygen-enriched atmospheres. An explosion occurred in the Johnson Space Center testing ground in 1980 caused by the combustion of a secondary aluminum valve when the oxygen pressure reached 6000 psi (41.4 MPa). Junichi Sato, a Japanese researcher, studied the flammability of iron in high-pressure, oxygen-enriched atmospheres [6]. He found that when the hot iron burned in oxygen, the oxide and natural convection influenced the combustion property. In order to understand the theoretical basis and to evaluate service safety, a brief review of the combustion behavior of metals is discussed in this paper
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