Kinetic model of liquid B₂O₃ gasification in a hydrocarbon combustion environment: I. 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 embeded 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.