Experimental study on burning of two Al/PTFE samples

Abstract

In order to study the cook-off characteristics of traditionally formulated Al/PTFE (Al/PTFE mass percentage was 26.5%/73.5%) reactive materials in air environment and the effect of aluminum honeycomb skeleton (4% of the total mass of the sample, which means that mass percentage of Al/PTFE was 22.5%/73.5%) on the release energy of traditional Al/PTFE reactive materials, Al/PTFE samples with and without aluminum honeycomb skeleton were prepared on the basis of traditional preparation process. The infrared (wavelength range 1.7–5.1 μm) and visible light (wavelength range 400–700 nm) radiation temperature and the evolutionary process of ignition and deflagration of the two reactive materials during the cook-off process were measured in real time by using the self-built cook-off equipment by combining with infrared thermal imager, transient fiber pyrometer and high speed camera. The experiment results show that the ignition temperature threshold of the reactive materials with aluminum honeycomb skeleton is 27 K lower than that of the traditionally formulated reactive materials. Meanwhile reaction release energy and the radiation temperature of the sample with the aluminum honeycomb skeleton are higher, but the deflagration duration is shorter. The reaction of the materials with aluminum honeycomb skeleton is more severe than that of the traditionally formulated reactive materials, which further demonstrates that the reaction release energy of the Al/PTFE reactive materials containing the aluminum honeycomb skeleton is significantly enhanced.