DROPLET COMBUSTION OF ORGANIC AZIDES.

An experimental investigation has been conducted on the vaporization and combustion characteristics of freely-falling droplets of organic azides in hot oxidizing or inert environments. The droplet burning rate and the state of micro-explosion have been measured. Results show that, compared with the conventional hydrocarbon fuels, droplets of azido fuels burn faster and micro-explode earlier in the droplet lifetime. The effect is especially strong for diazido n-alkanes whose gasification rates can be several hundred percent of the corresponding n-alkanes. Such strong responses are postulated to be caused by dissociative gasification with very low heat of gasification.