A Comparative Study of the Explosion Characteristics of IPN and IPN/JP-10 Mixtures in Air Aerosols

This article presents a comparison of the explosion characteristics of mixtures of isopropyl nitrate (IPN, (CH3)(2)CHONO2) and JP-10 (C10H16, tricycle [5.2.1.0(2,6)] decane) in air aerosols. The explosion pressure, flame temperature, maximum rate of pressure rise, maximum rate of temperature rise, and lower flammability limits (LFLs) were measured for two sets of IPN and mixed IPN/JP-10 in air aerosols at different concentrations and Sauter mean diameters (SMDs) of 19 mu m and 34 mu m, respectively, and the values were compared with the experimental results of JP-10/air aerosols with SMDs of 20 mu m and 35 mu m (from our previous research). Experiments were also performed to study various concentrations at various ignition energies for the IPN/air aerosols and the explosions of binary mixture aerosols with various mass ratios of IPN and JP-10. The experimental results indicated that for the IPN/air and JP-10/air aerosols with a mean SMD of similar to 34 mu m, the maximum peak pressure and maximum peak temperature of the IPN/air aerosols were greater than those of the JP-10/air aerosols. The maximum rate of pressure rise of the IPN/air aerosols reached a maximum value of 395.3 MPa/s at a mean SMD of similar to 34 mu m, and the pressure increased more abruptly in the IPN/air aerosols than in the JP-10/air aerosols. The LFLs of the IPN/air aerosols occurred with a total concentration of 197 g/m(3) at a mean SMD of 19 mu m and a total concentration of 233 g/m(3) at a mean SMD of 34 mu m, whereas the LFLs for the JP10/air aerosols with SMDs of 20 mu m and 35 mu m were less than 47 g/m(3) and 40 g/m(3), respectively. The experimental results presented here also showed that the maximum peak pressure was 1.07 MPa at a binary liquid mass ratio of IPN:JP-10 (%) of 72: 28 and a mean SMD of similar to 34 mu m.