An empirical model for the ignition of explosively dispersed aluminum particle clouds

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. After the Al particles ignite, a competition for oxidizer between the booster detonation products and Al ensues. 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 the time required to attain peak ignition, are sensitive to the model parameters. The peak degree of dissociation in the fireball is about 19 % and the associated energy can play a significant role on the dynamics of the problem. The peak degree of ionization is about 2.9 % and the energy associated with this is much lower than the other controlling factors. Overall, this study demonstrates that the new ignition model developed captures effects not included in other combusCommunicated by F. Zhang. A condensed version of this manuscript was presented at the 23rd International Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems (ICDERS), Irvine, CA, July 24–29, 2011. K. Balakrishnan (B) · J. B. Bell · V. E. Beckner Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA e-mail: [email protected] A. L. Kuhl Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94551, USA tion models for the investigation of shock-induced ignition of aluminum particle clouds.