Enhanced Al-H2O-based fuels combustion characteristics with polyacrylamide at low pressures

The combustion behavior of nano-aluminum-water (n-Al-H 2 O) mixture with addition of polyacrylamide (PAM) was investigated in argon at 0.1∼1.5 MPa using a constant-pressure strand burner. The burning rates of n-Al-H 2 O mixture were measured. The results show that PAM addition can not only help improve the burning rate of n-Al-H 2 O mixture, but also decrease the pressure index of burning rate. The mixture of n-Al powder and H 2 O cannot be ignited in argon at 0.1 MPa, but the mixture of n-Al powder and H 2 O with the 3 wt % PAM can be ignited, and the mixture can support the self-sustaining combustion. The burning rate is 7.64 mm/s. Moreover, the burning rate increases with increasing the pressure. In addition, the combustion process and flame image characteristics were obtained by a high-speed photography technique, and the element composition and surface morphology of the condensed combustion products were evaluated using a scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray system.