Nineteenth Symposium (International) on Combustion/The Combustion Institute, 1982/pp.

557-563

COMBUSTION OF A L U M I N U M A N D BORON SLURRY F U E L S IN A

D U M P COMBUSTOR

I. PELEG
Armament Development Authority
AND

Y. M. TIMNAT
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Aluminum and boron kerosene slurries were successfully burned in a dump combustor.
The apparatus built is described, with emphasis on the slurry fuel supply system and the
measuring equipment. The results are presented as combustion efficiency versus fuel-air ratio
for kerosene, aluminum and boron slurry. The data for kerosene, which was used for running
in the facility and for comparison, show high efficiency (80 + 100%). Aluminum was tested
below the stoichiometric ratio (0.225) and showed an average efficiency of 80% in the fuel-
air range 0.05 to 0.18. Boron reached this level for fuel-air ratios 0.05 to 0.12 (the stoichi-
ometric ratio is 0.091). For lower fuel-air ratios the efficiency drops, since the ignition tem-
perature of boron is not reached. There is an upper limit to the amount of metal that it
is advantageous to include in slurries. The droplet size of the slurry appears to be an im-
portant parameter and it should be small.

Introduction ian character of slurries, it is also possible to over-

The advantages of slurry fuels based on boron
and aluminum particles dispersed in a liquid hy-
drocarbon carrier were described by Pinns et al. 1
and by Wilson and Berl. 2 Recently Peleg and Tim-
nat3 studied the theoretical performance of such
fuels for use in ramjet propulsion.
Calculations of the sonic specific impulse for air,
Sa, and fuel, Sf, were performed for boron slurries
containing 50, 70 and 80% metal and for aluminum
slurries having a concentration of 50 and 80%. The
value of Sa increases with fuel-air ratio, reaching
160 to 170 seconds for stoichiometric mixtures. This
value is similar to that obtained for liquid kerosene.
If, however, there are volume restrictions, then the
sonic volumetric specific impulse. Sfpy can grow up
to 100% for boron slurries, reachirig values of 2.8
to 5.10 -8 Kg sec/m 3 for practical fuel-air ratios.
Aluminum slurries perform well also, and have the
advantage of being cheaper; however, their high
flame temperature requires special provisions.
In practice the usefulness of a given fuel de-
pends not only on burning efficiency, but also on
handling characteristics, storage stability and good
injection properties. The main problems to be
overcome for slurry fuels are high viscosity and
storage stability. The latter can be improved by
decreasing the particle size and adding appropriate
stabilizing compounds. Thanks to the non-Newton-
557
come the viscosity limitations.
In order to evaluate the results a one-dimen-
sional model of the combustion process was devel-
oped. 4 This will be presented elsewhere; here a
short qualitative description that brings out the
main stages of the flow and the combustion pro-
cess, which will be required in the discussion, is
given. Looking at Fig. 1, one can distinguish dif-
ferent stages; at station 1 fuel is injected into hot
air, coming from a heater. This mixture goes through
a sudden expansion step 2, immediately down-
stream of which there is ignition of the kerosene.
The sudden expansion causes the formation of a hot
recirculation zone, in which the liquid fuel contin-
ues to evaporate. Between stations 2 and 3 the liq-
uid fuel burns, while the solid particles undergo
combustion. Finally, one has a conventional nozzle
flow.
Reese and Carbone5 developed in the early sev-
enties a dump combustor, with a suitable handling
and delivery system for slurries, in which they
studied successfully various parameters of an alu-
minum based fuel. They investigated the influence
of pressure and temperature at the entrance to the
combustor, the change in flow Mach number, the
entrance angle of the combustion air and the cham-
ber length, obtaining efficiencies of the order of
80 to 85%. They were, however, not successful
with boron slurries.
558 CONTINUOUS COMBUSTORS

END OF PARTICLE
COMBUSTION
l~ SUDDEN (~
C) EXPANSION
FUEL I N J E ~ U / I r }::'~f:~"~ '-:'.~:'': l~l'~i'~-.~-.;:.:'~-.:.%
::~'II:~':~:~I !
9. :. :,~ - o ;~o, ~:'~ :,;'::::':;',

HEATED
AIR
u ~: ::'~'~ ;~s-: -'~,; "-~- : :',":"," r % ' ^'"~- " " / : ~

LIQUID FUEL PARTICLE

VAPORIZATION ZONE COMBUSTION
SOLID PARTICLES
HEATING
FIe. 1. Schematic of slurry combustion chamber.

In the same period Schmotoloka et al. 6 investi-
gated the use of slurries based on magnesium and
aluminum as scramjet fuels and obtained prelimi-
nary positive results.
In the present work a dump combustor and an
appropriate remotely controlled handling and deliv-
ery system were built. Experiments were per-
formed with boron and aluminum slurries having
different metal content under a number of condi-
tions (entrance temperature, flow rate, injection
method, were varied); both types of slurries burned
with reasonable efficiency. The results are dis-
cussed stressing the influence of various parame-
ters and finally recommendations for further re-
search are presented.
Apparatus
The experimental facility built for this research
consists of the following components: the cold air
supply, which includes a sonic measuring nozzle;
the air heater, where air temperature is increased
by combustion of a small amount of kerosene; the
liquid or slurry fuel supply (the two are inter-
changeable); the combustion chamber assembly,
which is of the type shown in Fig. 1 and consists
of a 120 mm i.d. entrance pipe, the combustor
proper (i.d. 275 mm, length 1200 mm) and an ex-
haust nozzle; the remote control panel, which in-
corporates, among other functions, air and fuel flow
regulation.
Of these systems it is of interest to describe in
more detail the fuel supply for the slurries (see Fig.
2). The high pressure nitrogen from bottle 1 pushes
the oil, contained in reservoir 2, into the cylinder
3: The oil in turn pushes the slurry contained in
the cylinder through the manifold 6 into the injec-
tors 7, where it is sprayed by atomizing air into the
entrance pipe. It is necessary to use the oil as an
intermediate liquid, in order to enable to measure
the fuel flow rate; this is accomplished by the tur-
bine flow-meter 4, which would be clogged by the
slurry. In order to change the fuel-air ratio one can
either regulate the air flow or work with a different
number of injectors (2, 4 and 6 were used) or com-
bine the two methods. This is done remotely through
the pressure actuators 5. The working pressure,
after the nitrogen regulator, did not exceed 1.2
MPa.
To operate the facility one starts by opening a
manual valve, which connects the assembly to the
remotely located high-pressure (20 MPa) air res-
ervoir. Referring now to Fig. 3, the air comes in
through the 3" pipe, 9, in which a choked nozzle,
7, is located, that allows one to measure the flow-
rate with a 1-2% accuracy.
A small part of the air flows through the bypass,
12, to the heater, 1, where it is burned with ker-
osene. By using the ball valve 11, one can change
the fuel-air ratio and thus control the inlet air tem-
perature over a wide range. The vitiated air enters
the settling chamber 3 through the sonic orifice 2,
whose function is to isolate the heater from possible
instabilities in the main chamber. Provision was
also made to add oxygen in lieu of the amount con-
sumed by combustion in the heater. From the set-
tling chamber the air passes through a flow-
straightener 4 and a grid 5, which improve one-
dimensionality. The slurry is injected at 6 from two
 ALUMINUM AND BORON SLURRY FUELS 559

/;
MANUAL VALVE I0
PRESSURE GAGE 9
INJECTOR HOUSING 8
INJECTOR 7
MANIFOLD 6
PRESSURE ACTUATOR 5
| TURBINE FLOW METER 4
FUEL CYLINDER 5
OIL RESERVOIR zl
ATOMIZATION
AIR INLET N2 BOTTLE I

FIC. 2. Fuel supply system.

FI ,c, ii~i l~-C~I-f~iM

AIR ET
PRESSURE GAGE (~
-

~ESSURE RECORDING- P
t
-_-RATURE RECORDING- T
t

BYPASS 12
BALL_VALVE II
NOZZLE I0,,
5" PIPE 9
COMBUSTOR 8
MEASURING NOZZLE 7
INJECTION HOUSING 6
AERODYNAMIC GRID 5
FLOW STRAIGHTNER 4
SETTLING CHAMBER 5
NOZZLE 2
AIR HEATER I
FIG. 3. The heater and the combustion chamber.
560 CONTINUOUS COMBUSTORS

to six injectors (see Fig. 2), according to the re- The approach of Wilson and Berl, 2 who take into
quired fuel-air ratio. The mixture is ignited close account propulsive applications, was adopted; one
to the main combustor entrance by an air-methane has, accordingly, for the combustion efficiency "q:
torch, operated by a spark plug. The main com-
bustor 8 is divided into two unequal sections; this (C*~xp - C * . )
allows the short entrance section to be changed in = (1)
(C% - C%)
case of damage and also allows the use of three
different combustor lengths. Heat losses are mini- Here the usual definition for C*exp is used, namely
mized by a refracting lining on the inner combustor
wall (this is important since boron requires a rather
Pc At
high minimum temperature for good ignition). The c*oxp ~ ,h (2/
nozzle 10 contains a graphite insert to keep down
erosion.
The combustor is operated in different where g is the gravity acceleration, Pc the chamber
modes--first it is heated by kerosene, then it is pressure, A t the nozzle throat area and ~ m the
switched over to slurry combustion and data are total mass flow. The theoretical characteristic ve-
collected; finally it goes back to kerosene for flush- locity, C*th , is given by
ing. These modes are registered on the record,
which is obtained on a multichannel optical oscil- C*'h = (~/a~ 1/2" "~ \T]('~
+ ]t~/+l/2('Y-I) (3)
lograph (Kiowa Rapicorder RMV 33L). The mea-
surements performed included fuel-flow rates, us-
ing a Potter Model 5151 magnetic turbine flow-
meter, temperatures (by iron constantan thermo- where ~/is the specific heat ratio, Ro the universal
couples) and pressure measurements, with BLH gas constant, T the absolute temperature and M
gauges manufactured by Electronics Inc. the mean molecular weight of the combustion
products. Finally one has the characteristic velocity
of the incoming air:
Results and Discussion
PcaAt
C* a -- (4)
rha
Efficiency
In order to compare results obtained with dif- where Pea is the air pressure and rh~ the air mass
ferent fuels and under different experimental con- flow in the combustor without burning.
ditions, it is useful to define combustion efficiency. C%xp and C*, are calculated from measured data,
INLET AIR TEMP.
-t- <100"c
100+200~:
[] 200 §
o 300 + 400"c
100" - 0 > 400"c
, ,,
&A m At] 9 &
80"

60~
O =lata
CHAMBER 9 l§
40! - PRESSURE
9 2-3ata
~ 3 ata
20- (p EXPERIMENT
STARTING DATA
POINT
I I I I I I f I I
0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 F/A
FIG. 4. Experimental results for kerosene, with 6 injectors.
 ALUMINUM AND BORON SLURRY FUELS 561

INLET AIR TEMP. + <lOO*e

-'~ IOO§
rt n 2OO+3OO*c
% o 300§ 400"c
100 & "r ,L (~ > 4 0 0 0 c
",a
m 4" ,~ ,.
& "~, A A
& ,I,
80 III a,& &A
4, Jl,

60-- O= lata
CHAMBER PRESSURE 9 I+:~ata
9 2§
40--
~' > 3 . a t a
S) EXPERIMENT
20-- STARTING DATA
POINT.

I t I I I I I I I L I I
0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13 0.14 0.15 0.16 0.17 ~/A

FIC. 5. Experimental results for aluminum slurry, with 6 injectors.

while for the theoretical characteristic velocity, C*th,
the adiabatic flame temperature, with the compo-
sition and the specific heat ratio corresponding to
complete combustion is used.
This definition of efficiency gives the possibility
of comparing the whole process to the theoretical
maximum, but does not give any insight on the
efficiency of the different stages, shown in Fig. 1.
It is, however, the most appropriate, if one wishes
to compare present results with published data or
with other types of fuel.
Experimental Data
The facility was first run on kerosene and the
results obtained served as a yardstick for compari-
son. Different amounts of fuel, from 0.05 to 0.38
kg/sec, were injected, using two, four or six injec-
tors. The results obtained with six injectors are pre-
sented in Fig. 4, which shows combustion effi-
ciency as a function of fuel-air ratio. Data taken at
different air entry temperature and entrance pres-
sure are shown together, since no effect of these
variables was observed. Notwithstanding the ex-
perimental scatter, one can note a difference be-
tween lean mixtures (fuel-air ratio in the range
from 0.015 to 0.055), for which the efficiency lies
between 80 and 100 percent and mixtures close to
stoichiometric (fuel-air ratio between 0.055 and
0.085), where the efficiency goes down to 65-80%.
For richer mixtures (fuel-air ratio over 0.085) there
seems to be again an improvement in efficiency.
These results, including the lower efficiency for
stoichiometric ratio, are in agreement with data
obtained by Warner, 7 who also used a dump corn-
bustor. The phenomenon might be due to higher
heat losses, caused by the rise in temperature at
stoichiometric conditions.
Figure 5 depicts the results obtained with alu-
minum slurry, using six injectors; here the fuel
flow rate was varied between 0.2 and 0.75 kg/sec
with corresponding air flow between 2.5 and 7.4
kg/sec. In all the experiments the fuel-air ratio was
well below stoichiometric (this is 0.225). The mean
combustion efficiency, of about 80%, obtained over
a wide range of fuel-air ratio, from 0.05 to 0.18,
is satisfactory, even if the scatter is considerable.
Figure 6 shows the results obtained for boron
slurries; the amount of fuel was varied between 0.1
and 0.5 kg/sec, while the corresponding air flow
rate was increased from 2 to 4.8 kg/sec. It can be
observed that at low fuel-air ratios, below 0.05, the
efficiency is very low; this is a consequence of the
fact that the temperature of the combustion gases
is too low to ignite the boron particles (below
1950~ K), so that only kerosene burns. For higher
fuel-air ratios the efficiency goes up, reaching about
80% around stoichiometric conditions (fuel-air ratio
of 0.091).
Discussion
As mentioned before the experiments were per-
formed at different levels of air entry temperature
and combustion pressure; this was done in order
to obtain an indication of the operational range of
the slurries. No influence of the pressure, which
reached a maximum absolute value of 0.4 MPa in
the combustion chambers, or of the entry temper-
562 CONTINUOUS COMBUSTORS

INLET AIR TEMP + < IO0" C

zx I00 -.' 2OO'C
11 n 200-: 300" C
o/,
0 300+400"C
100 O > 400 "C
+
+9 + +
80 ++ 9
9 9149 § .~.

60 §

40 CHAMBER PRESSURE o = I ata

I) 1§ a t a
9 2+3ata
20 & > 3 ata

I I I I I I I I I I I I
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 F/A

FIC. 6. Experimental results for boron slurry, with 2 and 4 injectors.

ature was observed. The scatter in the results ap-
pears reasonable for the given conditions. One of
the important conclusions is the fact that the com-
bustion is stable for all the concentrations of the
three types of fuel that were tested.
Another important observation emerging from
the study is that there exists an upper limit to the
amount of metal that it is desirable to include in
the slurry, because the combustion of the liquid
fuel must provide a high enough rise of the gas
temperature to ignite the metal particles. This is
particularly important for boron, which has a high
ignition temperature limit (1950~ K). For fuel-lean
mixtures, the problem is, therefore, more severe;
this causes the low combustion efficiency, observed
in Fig. 6 for the lower range of fuel-air ratios (be-
low 0.05); one could even define an ignition thresh-
old for the particles.
It appears that the behavior of slurry fuel is sim-
ilar to that of liquid fuels as regards the formation
of droplets by the air spray and their injection into
the combustion chamber. The particle size, which
appears to be very important for good performance,
is determined by the ratio between the air flow
used for spraying and the fuel flow. Therefor6 the
pressure drop across the injector is less relevant to
the droplet size than for pressure injection.
Additional properties that influence the choice
of the optimum number of injectors (apart from the
droplet size) are the viscosity and the surface ten-
sion. It is not easy to determine their values, be-
cause of experimental difficulties encountered in
measurements performed in slurries and since they
depend on temperature and aging. The effect of
the viscosity is the stronger one, in particular when
the spraying air to fuel ratio is less than two; their
relation is close to linear; the influence of the sur-
face tension is somewhat smaller and diminishes for
spraying air to fuel ratios above two.
Finally, it appears that in order to obtain high
efficiency, it is very important to achieve a spray
as fine as possible.
Conclusions
The main result of this work is that it has dem-
onstrated that slurries based on aluminum and bo-
ron, containing up to 80% solids, burn with rea-
sonable efficiency in a dump combustor. This was
achieved by building and operating successfully an
experimental facility for the transport, injection and
combustion of slurry fuels.
It appears that insulating the combustion cham-
ber walls helps to achieve good ignition of the bo-
ron slurry, by maintaining a high wall temperature
and minimizing heat losses (water cooling has the
opposite effect).
The flame temperature of aluminum slurries was
found to be very high and requires much stronger
thermal protection of the combustion chamber than
the boron slurries. This could be utilized in order
to simulate cheaply high temperature flows con-
taining solid particles, characteristic of solid pro-
pellant rockets.
Finally it is recommended that more detailed
experiments be performed for slurries with the
 ALUMINUM AND BORON SLURRY FUELS
highest suitable metal content in the range of max-
imum efficiency; in parallel the rheology of slurries
should be investigated further, in order to achieve
better storage and aging properties.
REFERENCES
1. PINNS, M. L., OLSON, W. T. AND BARNET, H. C.:
"NACA Research on Slurry Fuels," Report 1388,
1958.
2. WILSON, W. E., JR. AND BERL, W. G.: "'Fuels,'"
Johns Hopkins University, AD/A-006114 Clear-
ing House Distributed, 1967, pp. 11-67.
COMMENTS
L. A. Kennedy, SUNY at Buffalo, USA. Recently
aluminum powders which have been produced un-
der inert atmospheres have become available for use
and hence have no oxide layer. Particle sizes below
10 Ixm have been found to be pyrophoric, Some
current preliminary studies in our laboratory indi-
cate that when such aluminum is used in slurries,
563
3. PELEC, I. AND TIMNAT, Y. M.: Israel J. Techn.,
20, 1982, in press.
4. PELEG, I.: "'Investigation o f a Combustion
Chamber for a Ram-jet Engine Working with
Slurry Fuels," D. Sc. Thesis, Technion, Haifa,
1980 (in Hebrew).
5. REESE, B. A. A~D CARBONE, H. M.: "Studies of
Slurry Fueled Propulsion Systems, Final Prog-
ress Report," Report TM-74-4, January 1974.
6. SCHMOTOLOKA,S. N. AND EDELMAN, R. B.: AIAA
Paper 71.6, 9th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meet-
ing, January 1971.
7. WARNER, C. E.: "'Studies of Slurry Fueled Pro-
pulsion Systems, "" Report TM-72-5, Sept. 1972,
Jet Propulsion Center, Purdue University.
the overall combustion times can be reduced com-
pared with slurries made with conventional alumi-
num particles. This is especially true at lower tem-
peratures and lean mixtures.
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