An Empirical Model for the Ignition of Aluminum Particle Clouds Behind Blast Waves

An empirical model for the ignition of aluminum particle clouds is developed and applied to the study of particle ignition and combustion behavior resulting from explosive blast waves. This model incorporates both particle ignition time delay as well as cloud concentration effects on ignition. The total mass of aluminum that burns is found to depend on the model, with shorter ignition delay times resulting in increased burning of the cloud. A new mass-averaged ignition parameter is defined and is observed to serve as a useful parameter to compare cloud ignition behavior. Investigation of this variable reveals that both peak ignition as well as time required to attain peak ignition are sensitive to the model parameters. Overall, this study demonstrates that the new ignition model developed captures effects not included in other combustion models for the investigation of shock-induced ignition of aluminum particle clouds.