Model and chemistry of HMX combustion

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical model for the combustion of HMX that is based upon the work of Ben Reuven and Caveny. Two alternative schemes for the combustion chemistry are proposed. Simplifying assumptions are made to achieve a closed-form solution for the condensed phase and three model versions differing in complexity for the gas phase. The paper emphasizes one of the chemistries in the calculated results presented. It is concluded that the combustion is controlled by vapor phase decomposition and that it would be difficult to achieve large burning rate increases by catalysis. For this particular problem, it is permissible to neglect mass diffusion in the conservation equations in the interests of computational convenience, but energy diffusion cannot be neglected except for limited purposes.