Characterization of temporal species and temperature evolution during nitromethane fireballs

Nitromethane (NM) as an energetic material has been investigated over the past several decades for its high oxygen concentration. This enables it to be used in several applications ranging from: high-performance fuel additive used to reduce soot formation and prevent engine knocking, to monopropellant due to the ability to burn in anoxic environments. However, despite the sustained interest in the fuel over this time, there is still a lack of detailed understanding of the combustion kinetics of the fuel. This is especially relevant at extreme conditions such as those described in this work. Temperature and H₂O time-histories will be collected during nitromethane rich detonations (φ=1.75, not accounting for local spatial variations) and results are to be presented. A two-color scheme is to be used to determine the temperature of water using lasers centered about 3920.1 cm^-1 and 4028.2 cm^-1 (2551.0 and 2482.5 nm respectively). Simulated conditions range pressures of .2 – 16 atm, and temperatures of 273 – 2500 K. These data is to be collected at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) facility located at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB), and are to be used in the development and refinement of blast models of NM.