KINETIC-MODEL OF LIQUID B2O3 GASIFICATION IN A HYDROCARBON COMBUSTION ENVIRONMENT .1. HETEROGENEOUS SURFACE-REACTIONS

As part of an ongoing program to model hydrocarbon assisted boron combustion, a kinetic model has been developed to describe gasification of the ubiquitous boron oxide coating that inhibits particulate boron ignition. This model includes homogeneous gas phase oxidation reactions, multi-component gas phase diffusion, heterogeneous surface reactions, and oxide vaporization. The kinetic processes are treated using a generalized kinetics code, with embedded sensitivity analysis, for the combustion of a one-dimensional (particle radius), spherical particle. This article presents the heterogeneous surface reactions used to describe oxide gasification and presents selected model results for a spherical boron oxide droplet which illustrate the dependence of the oxide gasification rates on the ambient temperature and particle diameter.