Experimental study of linear burning rates of liquid nitromethane using a novel high-pressure continuous feed liquid strand burner

Rachel A. Schwind, Joshua B. Sinrud, Casey C. Fuller, Michael S. Klassen, Robert A. Walker, C. Franklin Goldsmith*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A novel high-pressure strand burner with the ability to maintain a continuous feed of a liquid monopropellant is used to investigate the linear burning rates of liquid nitromethane as a function of chamber pressure. A new procedure for obtaining linear burning rates is presented. The present study investigates that pressure dependence in a subset of the low-pressure region, ranging from 3 to 8 MPa, which corresponds to a region with significant discrepancies in existing literature. The linear burning rate of liquid nitromethane is known to have a pressure dependence that follows Saint Robert's Law in select pressure regions. The results fall between the upper and lower limits of existing literature with a pressure exponent of n = 1.106. To complement the experimental results, numerical simulations of a simple 1D burner-stabilized flame were conducted with three different nitromethane mechanisms. Similar to the experimental results, the simulations showed significant discrepancies for the predicted flame temperatures and heat release rate for nitromethane combustion in an inert environment. The combined experimental and modeling results highlight the need to further investigate the sensitivity of the reaction kinetics to different external factors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5083-5090
Number of pages8
JournalProceedings of the Combustion Institute
Volume39
Issue number4
Early online date19 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2023

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Burn rates
  • Liquid monopropellants
  • Nitromethane
  • Saint Robert's law
  • Strand burners

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