Hypergolicity and pyrophoricity

In the case of supersonic combustion ramjet devices, instantaneous ignition must occur because the flow time in the constant area duct that comprises the ramjet chamber is short. As noted in Chapter 1, supersonic combustion simply refers to the flow condition and not to any difference in the chemical reaction mechanism from that in subsonic ramjet devices. What is unusual in supersonic combustion because of the typical flow condition is that the normal ignition time is usually longer than the reaction time. To assure rapid ignition in this case, many have proposed the injection of silane (SiH4), which is 

The term pyrophoric has usually been applied to the ignition of very fine sizes of metal particles. Except for the noble metals, most metals when refined and exposed to air form an oxide coat. Generally this coating thickness is of the order of 25 A. If the oxide coat formed is of greater size than that of the pure metal consumed, then the coat scales and the nascent metal is prone to continuously oxidize. Iron is a case in point and is the reason pure iron rusts. 

The ratio of the oxide formed to the metal consumed is called the Piling and Bedworth number. When the number is over 1, the metal rusts. Aluminum and magnesium are the best examples of metals that do not rust because a protective oxide coat forms that is, they have a Piling to Bedworth number of 1. Scratch an aluminum ladder and notice a bright fissure forms and quickly self-coats. The heat release in the sealing aluminum oxide is dissipated to the ladder structure. 

It is with the understanding of the above that one can give some insight to what establishes the pyrophoricity of small metal particles. The term pyrophoricity should pertain to the instantaneous combustibility of fine metal particles that have no oxide coat. This coating prevention is achieved by keeping the particles formed and stored in an inert atmosphere such as argon. Nitrogen is not used because nitrides can be formed. When exposed to air, the fine metal particle cloud instantaneously bursts into a flame. Thus it has been proposed 

Although pyrophoric metals can come in various shapes (spherical, porous spheres or flakes), the calculation to be shown will be based on spherical particles. Since it is the surface area to volume ratio that determines the critical condition, then it would be obvious for a metal flake (which would be pyrophoric) to have a smaller mass than a sphere of the same metal. Due to surface temperature, however, pyrophoric flakes will become spheres as the metal melts. 

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