IGNITION OF ALUMINUM DROPLETS BEHIND SHOCK-WAVES IN WATER

Gram quantities of molten aluminum droplets at temperatures up to 1973 K are forced to interact with water under sustained pressure pulses of up to 40.8 MPa in a hydrodynamic shock tube. Conditions are identified under which the thermal interaction (physical regime) develops into chemical ignition and total combustion events. This, and the absence of catastrophic breakup in the physical regime, raises some very interesting questions with regard to the sequence of events during large-scale aluminum-water explosions.