Gasless combustion-driven heating elements for materials experiments in space

Abstract

The novel concept of using gasless combustible mixtures as heating elements for materials processing in space and in ground-based microgravity facilities is presented. The unique properties of metal-sulfur combustible compositions (i.e., high flame temperatures, low ignition temperatures, liquid combustion products, nonporous charges, and gasless reactions) make them ideally suited for such heating applications. Heating elements based on metal-sulfur combustion have an energy density more than order of magnitude greater than electrical batteries, can be easily integrated with processing samples, and can operate under high pressures and in different gaseous environments. Demonstration prototypes of the gasless combustion-driven furnaces have already demonstrated peak temperatures close to 2300 K and heating rates above 200 °C/s.