ABSTRACT
The combustion of metals has long been of interest to the combustion community because of its high energy densities. It is well known that energetic metals such as aluminum and boron have higher combustion energies and can be employed as energetic additives in propellants and explosives [1] which are currently being studied for underwater propulsion using seawater as the oxidizer. Silicon metal combustion has gained attention which can be used as an energy carrier [2, 3]. Metals will be the important fuels for the establishment of a lunar mission base and the exploration of Mars. Several researchers have been carried out the different sized-aluminum combustion under diverse oxidizing atmospheres [4-8]. Metalized propellant propulsion systems are considered as replacements for the solid rocket booster and liquid sustainer stages to the current launch vehicles. A complete comparison of energy density of various fuels is shown in Figure 13.1 on a mass and volume basis. The energy available from metals in general is much higher than that of conventional fuels per volume.
