Combustion characteristics of pure aluminum and aluminum alloys powders

In this work, the explosion and combustion characteristics of aluminum and some aluminum alloys AlSi7Mg0.6, AlSi10Mg, AlMg5 under powders conditioning were studied. The idea was to compare the combustion of pure aluminum and aluminum alloys. The Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE) and explosion severity Delta P-max and (dP/dt)(max) which represents the dust explosion parameters were measured for all powders using Hartman tube and 20 L spherical bomb. The particles temperature and flame temperature were determined by using IR pyrometer and spectroscopy respectively. The results showed that pure aluminum was more sensitive and severe than its alloys. MIE were: 4 mJ for pure aluminum, 13-23 mJ for aluminum alloys. For severity parameters, the over-pressure Delta P-max were around 7-8 bars with maximum rate of pressure rise at 1170 bar/s for aluminum and 5-7 bars with 250-360 bar/s for alloys. However, it has been observed that flame temperatures were similar for aluminum and alloys and vary around 2800-3300 K as a function of concentration.