Краткое описание

Results are presented of real-time x-ray radiographic studies of the closed combustion of a jet of a gaseous halogenated oxidizer (SF₆) in a liquid alkaline metal (Li) fuel bath. This type of confined combustion is a feature in the U.S. Navy's development of energy sources for propulsion of undersea vehicles. Diagnostics systems and techniques adapted from methods and equipment used for radiological imaging in medicine are employed in a combustion laboratory. These experimental methods permit detailed study of flames and of the jet-driven recirculating flow characteristic of closed liquid metal combustion (CLMC). Medical radio- logical techniques and equipment are found to be optimal for studying characteristics of the dynamic internal processes in CLMC. Ray tracing and Monte Carlo techniques (based on the widely used radiation transport code, MCNP) are used in the simulations. Both simulation methods include a complex focal spot, monochromatic or polychromatic emission spectra and an idealized 2-dimensional detector array. The results of ray trace and MCNP simulations of the imaging system are compared with each other and with selected video frames from radiographic records of operating closed liquid metal combustors. Simulations of imaging of flow-tracing particles in the combustion bath are performed to assess the potential to derive three-dimensional localizations from two dimensional projections. Representative results are presented, and the methods of producing both the radiographs and simulations are discussed.