New Aluminum Agglomeration Models and Their Use in Solid-Propellant-Rocket Simularions

Random packs of ammonium perchlorate and aluminum particles in fuel binder, of the kind used to mimic the morphology of heterogeneous propellants, define distributions of aluminum particles that can be used as the starting point of agglomeration studies. The goal is to predict the fraction of aluminum that agglomerates and the size distribution of the agglomerates. Three phenomenological models are described, each with one or two parameters that can be adjusted to fit experimental data, and a number of such fits are attempted. It is shown that the agglomeration models can be calibrated to match a wide variety of propellant outputs, as needed for the numerical simulation of rocket chamber flows with aluminum injection. Results for such flows are presented and provide information about the distribution of the aluminum droplets and of the alumina smoke particles that arise from its presence.

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