COMBUSTION WAVE MICROSTRUCTURE IN GAS-SOLID REACTION SYSTEMS - EXPERIMENTS AND THEORY

Using experimental techniques developed previously by the authors, the combustion wave microstructure in a gas-solid reaction system (specif ically, the Ti-N-2 system) was studied. A quantitative analysis of the location, shape and propagation of the combustion wave front was carr ied out. The relay-race mechanism of combustion wave propagation was o bserved for a wide range of experimental conditions. In conjunction wi th the experiments, a micro-heterogeneous cell model was developed tha t simulates the local propagation of the combustion wave in a random p orous medium. For both experiments and calculations, the initial organ ization of the reaction medium (porosity, particle size, etc.) was fou nd to affect the heterogeneity of the combustion wave. The fluctuation s of the combustion wave, in terms of both shape and propagation, incr eased monotonically with increasing heterogeneity of the reaction medi um (i.e., larger porosity or particle size).