Study on Effect of Aluminium Powder Particle Size on Performance of CO₂ Phase Change Explosion Excitation Agents

To study the effect of aluminum powder particle size on the performance of CO₂ phase change explosion exciters, the changes in the thermal decomposition characteristics, safety, temperature resistance, and reaction heat were investigated by the calorimetric method(TG), ignition test, temperature resistance test, and reaction heat test. The results show that the thermal decomposition characteristics of the excitation agent did not change significantly after adding 40、80 and 120 μm aluminum powders. However, the apparent activation energy of the activator was significantly different. The apparent activation energy of the excitation agent containing 40 μm aluminum powder decreased by 52.92 kJ/mol. Still, the apparent activation energy of the excitation agent containing 80 μm and 120 μm aluminum powders increased by 55.21 and 57.53 kJ/mol, respectively. After adding different particle sizes of aluminum powder, each sample can be ignited in the air, and the combustion process is accompanied by white smoke. Among them, the excitation agent with 120μm aluminum powder burns more violently than that without aluminum powder and that with 40 and 80μm aluminum powder. The experimental results show that the excitation agents containing different particle sizes of aluminum powder can be excited by the electric primer, but the sample is not completely ignited. When these excitation agents are in a closed environment and under a certain pressure(greater than or equal to 0.2 MPa), they can be reliably ignited without an obvious explosion phenomenon, indicating that their safety is good. After holding at 70℃ for 48 h, the overall excitation agent added with aluminum powder did not change significantly, and the temperature index T_s was about 70℃, indicating that its temperature resistance was good. When the mass percentage of aluminum powder with different particle sizes is the same, the increase in reaction heat is about 12%, indicating that the particle size has little effect on the reaction heat of the excitation agents.