Shock-induced combustion of aluminum particle clusters investigated with resolved sharp-interface two-dimensional simulations

Abstract

The combustion of aluminum particle clusters in shocked flows is studied with two-dimensional numerical simulations. These simulations examine, for the first time, aspects of the vaporization and burning of molten aluminum particle clusters that are markedly different from an isolated burning aluminum particle. The flame-structure around a particle within a cluster is found to vary along the flow direction: particles at the cluster front end undergo kinetically limited combustion with the formation of a wake flame, while particles located downstream in the cluster burn with an envelope flame indicating combustion limited by transport and mixing.