Study of Combustion Characteristics of Magnesium/Strontium Nitrate and Magnesium/Sodium Nitrate Pyrotechnics Under Low Pressure Environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT To explore the effect of pressure on the combustion and luminescence properties of magnesium/nitrate pyrotechnics, combustion tests and thermal analysis of magnesium/sodium nitrate (N) and magnesium/strontium nitrate (S) pyrotechnic samples with zero oxygen balance were conducted under the pressure range of 101kPa-1kPa in this study. The results show that the flame height of N increases continuously as the pressure decreases, and the flames gradually change from a steady-state convergent flame to a turbulent evanescent flame. However, due to the different diffusion rates of the gas-phase combustion products, the diffusion of S at low pressure is lower and the flame still maintains a stable laminar flow. Although the light intensity and burning speed of both N and S satisfy Vier’s law, the luminous intensity of S is less sensitive to pressure and still has good luminous performance at 1 kPa. Thermal analysis test results show that N and S can react almost completely at atmospheric pressure, and their enthalpies of reaction are 6.75 kJ/g and 6.07 kJ/g, respectively. The difference in the thermal decomposition histories of strontium nitrate and sodium nitrate at 1 kPa results in a reaction enthalpy of 4.24 kJ/g for S and only 2.45 kJ/g for N. This indicates that the reaction degree of S at low pressure is higher than that of N. The SEM-EDS test results further confirm this opinion. These scientific findings provide useful insights into the low-pressure combustion behavior of pyrotechnics and support the growing need for military and civilian applications.