Comparison of flame inception behavior of liquid nitromethane in inert and air environments

Nitromethane is a potential green monopropellant, but there are limited kinetic studies on its burning behavior in oxygen-free conditions, such as those required by underwater and space propulsion applications. Mechanisms for nitromethane combustion have generally been validated against combustion experiments in oxidative environments. These studies provide valuable data on gas-phase kinetics, but they are less informative for elucidating and quantifying the complex phase interactions and initiation reactions that control the ignition and performance of liquid monopropellants at high pressures in chemically inert environments. This manuscript presents new experimental data from a novel continuous flow, liquid propellant strand burner to measure the ignition behavior of nitromethane. (c) 2022 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.