Expansion Behavior and Temperature Mapping of Thermites in Burn Tubes as a Function of Fill Length

The reaction of loosely-packed aluminum/copper oxide (Al/CuO) thermites in a 12 cm long acrylic burn tube was investigated as a function of the fill length from 2 to 10 cm. The velocity of the luminous front was measured both in the filled and unfilled region, and approached 1000 ms(-1) in the unfilled region, independent of the fill length. This value is approximately a factor of two higher than the fastest velocity measured in the filled region, 606 ms(-1), for the 10 cm filled tube. The velocity increase in the unfilled region ist likely due to the increased open porosity, which can support faster flow velocities for a given pressure gradient relative to that in the porous material. A high-speed color imaging pyrometer was used to thermally map the evolution of the flame in both regions. Near the luminous front in the filled section, the temperature was observed to rapidly increase in a 1-2 cm zone to a maximum value near 3200 K, and an average value near 3000 K was sustained in the wake well after the front passes and exits the tube. In partially-filled tubes, even for the lowest fill length of 2 cm, the intermediate and/or product species could be seen to expand forward and completely fill the tube with a sustained temperature of ca. 3000 K. This temperature did not decay during the expansion, suggesting that the material continues to react as it expands. The results raise several questions about what a burn tube experiment is really measuring; such as what fraction of the material has burned when the luminous front passes and what role open cracks or microstructures play in promoting transport. These questions are critically important towards developing a predictive capability for confined, loosely packed deflagrations.