Fuels combustion research. Final report, 1 March 1982-30 September 1985

The qualitative mechanisms for the oxidation of benzene and alkylated benzenes corresponds well with flow-reactor results. Major results were obtained on how the aromatic sidechain reacts, and specific fundamental reaction rate data were obtained. A fundamental correlation with respect to fuel C-C bonds for the sooting tendency of fuels under premixed combustion conditions was developed and the concept that fuel structure plays no direct role in determining the critical sooting equivalence ratio was put forth and substantiated by results on pure fuels and fuel mixtures. Fuel-structure and pyrolysis mechanisms were found to be the important controlling factors in sooting diffusion flames. From a knowledge of basic pyrolysis studies, it is now possible to predict a fuel's synergistic trends with diffusion-flame sooting trends; however, these trends may be due to the structural aspects of these flames. Experimental and theoretical research efforts on high-energy-density slurry propellants are reported. Transient internal heat conduction and liquid surface regression of a rigid slurry droplet during liquid vaporization and combustion were investigated using singular perturbation methods. Experimentally, a technique to produce isolated slurry fuel droplets of boron and JP-10 was developed, and observations on the isolated droplet combustion characteristics of several commercially prepared boron/JP-10 slurries weremore » made.« less