Research Summaries

Back Additive Manufacturing of High Density Solid Fuels for Air Breathing Combustion Applications

Fiscal Year 2022
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Smith, Walter C.
Gunduz, Ibrahim E.
Dausen, David F.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary Fuels with high efficiency and energy densities are needed to maximize the range and speed of future air-breathing systems such as solid fuel ramjets (SFRJ). The performance of the fuel mixtures that include large amount of metal additives suffer due to the poor combustion efficiency of the metal powders as they often do not burn completely during the short residence time in the combustor. Recent research has improved the reactivity of these fuels, but introducing them into a binder at high loading densities is a challenge due to the poor rheology. In order to develop and maximize the energy density and performance of SFJR fuel grains, advancements in additive manufacturing (AM) systems will be leveraged. This study will utilize vibration-assisted printing (VAP) and liquid metal printing (LMP) with the Xerox ElemX system to print fuel grains with metal powders and aluminum alloys, and use spray dried nanocomposite mesoparticles as additives. The research will test the physical limits of these approaches and determine optimal printing parameters for producing high quality printed fuels. The fuels will be evaluated mechanically and optimized using fly out calculations and they will be characterized with small scale combustion studies.
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal