Influence of nitromethane concentration on ignition energy and explosion parameters in gaseous nitromethane/air mixtures

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide new experimental data of the minimum ignition energy (MIE) of gaseous nitromethane/air mixtures to discuss the explosion pressure and the flame temperature as a function of nitromethane concentration. Observations on the influence of nitromethane concentration on combustion pressure and temperature through the pressure and temperature measure system show that peak temperature (the peak of combustion temperature wave) is always behind peak pressure (the peak of the combustion pressure wave) in arrival time, the peak combustion pressure of nitromethane increases in the range of its volume fraction 10–40% as the concentration of nitromethane increases, and it slightly decreases in the range of 40–50%. The maximum peak pressure is equal to 0.94 MPa and the minimum peak pressure 0.58 MPa. Somewhat similar to the peak pressure, the peak combustion temperature increases with the volume fraction of nitromethane in the range of 10–40%, and slightly decreases in 40–50%. The maximum peak temperature is 1340 °C and the minimum 860 °C. The combustion temperature rise rate increases with the concentration of nitromethane in 10–30%, while decreases in 30–50% and its maximum value of combustion temperature rise rate in 10–50% is 4200 °C/s at the volume fraction of 30%. Influence of the concentration of nitromethane on the combustion pressure rise rate is relatively complicated, and the maximum value of rise rate of combustion pressure wave in 10–50% is 11 MPa/s at the concentration 20%.