This is why I wondered about the energy/mass addition from the oxidizing metal wires/rods/staples, as for preheating and combustion chamber temperatures, its tricky, preheating would give heat to the grain and improve the initial combustion but with combustion heating I think flame front speed is faster than the conduction rate of the grain.heada wrote:Does grain temp pre-ignition really matter that much? Once the motor ignites, the CC is going to be above 1500 degrees C in a matter of less than 1 second (I'd hazard to guess that it would be up to temp in much less time, something along the lines of once the motor comes up to pressures)
Even if pre-heating the grain helps, you'd be walking a very fine line up to the self ignition temp of the grain.
-Aaron
Ok maybe that makes no sense, try again, the temperature in the active region of the combustion chamber is lets say a 1000c plus but the temperature of the fuel grain lets say 1 or 2 mm deeper is going to at ambient temperature, the heat conduction rate of the grain is going to cause this plus maybe ablative cooling of the active combustion surface.
The difference between silver and aluminum intrigues me as I would expect ali to give better performance due to its oxidizing performance.
For the self ignition point maybe include a wire bead thermocouple:-)
Viv