Combustion models for shock-induced cloud ignition of aluminium particles using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Abstract

The present work is a numerical follow-up on our published experimental paper on shock ignition of aluminium particle clouds in the low-temperature regime. The in-house multi-phase regularized smoothed particle hydrodynamics (MP-RSPH) code is used to perform numerical simulations with an increasing degree of complexity, looking at single-phase, inert, and reactive particles in separate simulations. The first part of the paper gives a short description of the additional physics added to the code. Based on the experimental results, the numerical code is then used to estimate the particle temperature at the time of ignition. Results from simulations with three different numerical descriptions, the diffusive, kinetic, and total burn rates, are then compared to the experimental results. The two diffusive burn rate simulations (K &H and O &H) show the best fit to the experimental results. The burn rate formula based on our experimental data (O &H) is preferred, since it has the gas temperature dependency included and does not require additional parameter adjustments. The results from the numerical simulations support the theory that the observed aluminium particle cloud burning process is diffusive, as indicated in the experimental paper.