Effect of metal powders on explosion of fuel-air explosives with delayed secondary igniters

In order to improve the energy level of fuel air explosive(FAE) with delayed secondary igniters, high energetic metal powders were added to liquid fuels mainly composed of ether and isopropyl nitrate.Metal powders’ explosive properties and reaction mechanisms in FAE were studied by high-speed video,pressure test system, and infrared thermal imager. The results show that compared with pure liquid fuels, the shock wave overpressure, maximum surface fireball temperature and high temperature duration of the mixture were significantly increased after adding high energetic metal powder. The overpressure values of the liquid-solid mixture at all measuring points were higher than that of the pure liquid fuels. And the maximum temperature of the fireball was up to 1700C, which was higher than that of the pure liquid fuels. After replacing 30% of aluminum powder with boron or magnesium hydride, the shock wave pressure of the mixture was further increased. The high heat of combustion of boron and the hydrogen released by magnesium hydride could effectively increase the blast effect of the mixture. The improvement of the explosion performance of boron was better than magnesium hydride. It shows that adding high energetic metal powder to liquid fuels can effectively improve the explosion performance of FAE.

Research on the Explosion Temperature Response of Fuel Air Explosive Measured by Colorimetric Pyrometer

An infrared colorimetric radiation thermometrical system was established based on the theory of optical radiation. The dynamic temperature history of fuel air explosive (FAE) was measured to obtain the temperature responses of primary initiation FAE and secondary initiation FAE in real time. And the characteristics of their temperature history curves were compared and analyzed. The results show that the primary initiation FAE has higher explosion temperature and longer duration compared to the secondary initiation FAE.

Effect of Center High Explosive in Dispersion of Fuel

The dispersion of the fuel due to the center high explosive, including several different physical stages, is analyzed by means of experimental results observed with a high speed motion analysis system, and the effect of center high explosive charge is suggested. The process of the fuel dispersion process can be divided into three main stages, acceleration, deceleration and turbulence. Within a certain scope, the radius of the final fuel cloud dispersed is independent of the center explosive charge mass in an FAE (fuel air explosive) device, while only dependent both on the duration of acceleration stage and on that of the deceleration. In these two stages, the dispersion of the fuel dust mainly occurs along the radial direction. There is a close relation between the fuel dispersion process and the center explosive charge mass. To describe the motion of fuel for different stages of dispersion, different mechanical models should be applied.

Experimental Study on Single Ignition Characteristics of Mixed Solid and Liquid Fuel

In order to probe into the single ignition characteristics of mixed solid and liquid fuel, optical and electrical experinments on unconfined volume dispersion and single ignition of few dosage of ternary fuel mixture are successfully done. Experimental results show that cloud detonation is distinguished from explosion of trinitrotoluene charge. The single ignition process of mixed fuel containing aluminum powder（Al）, propylene oxide （PO） and explosive （TNT） can be divided into four stages, the overpressure within its explosion field first increases, then decays with increase of distance. Explosion effects can be enhanced with adding proper trinitrotoluene into fuel mixture, the optimized ratio is m （Al） ： m （PO）： m （TNT） - 55：35： 10. The overpressure of binary mixed fuel containing Al and TNT decays like trinitrotoluene charge with increase of distance, but its value is higher than the trinitrotoluene charge＇s in the same mass at longer distance. The continual action time of plus overpressure during cloud detonation reaches magnitude of 10 ms and is about 100 times longer than the trinitrotoluene charge＇ s.