Effect of Ammonium Perchlorate Coating on the Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Al/JP-10 Nanofluid Fuel

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aluminum (Al) nanoparticles were coated with ammonium perchlorate (AP) to obtain AP-coated Al nanoparticles with different coating amounts. The coating layers were characterized by TEM and TG. Result showed that AP formed a uniform coating layer on the surface of the Al nanoparticles. The effective coating amounts of the particles were 2.864%, 6.182%, 10.285%, and 13.182%. Al nanoparticles were added into JP-10 to obtain Al/JP-10 nanofluid fuel. A CO2 laser test system was utilized to conduct a single-droplet laser ignition experiment. Result showed that AP coating exhibited an evident promoting effect on droplet ignition combustion. With AP coating, the oxidation degree of Al nanoparticles in droplets was evidently improved, and the carbon content produced by incomplete combustion of JP-10 was also significantly diminished. This finding indicated that the AP coating was beneficial to the oxidation combustion of Al particles and JP-10 in the droplets. However, the analysis result of the combustion process of the droplet showed that the combustion intensity and temperature initially demonstrated an increasing trend and then decreased with the increase of AP content, thereby indicating that the coating amount of AP, an oxidant with relatively low calorific value, should not be extremely large to obtain the optimal combustion promotion effect.