Ignition and combustion of pyrotechnics at low pressures and at temperature extremes

Rapid and effective ignition of pyrotechnic countermeasure decoy flares is vitally important to the safety of expensive military platforms such as aircraft. QinetiQ is conducting experimental and theoretical research into pyrotechnic countermeasure decoy flares. A key part of this work is the development and application of improved models to increase the understanding of the ignition processes occurring for these flares. These models have been implemented in a two-dimensional computational model and details are described in this paper. Previous work has conducted experiments and validated the computational model at ambient temperature and pressure. More recently the computational model has been validated at pressures down to that equivalent to 40,000 feet but at ambient temperature (∼290 K). This paper describes further experimental work in which the ignition delays of the priming material in inert countermeasure decoy flares were determined for pressures down to 40,000 feet and at temperature extremes of −40 °C and 100 °C. Also included in this paper is a comparison of the measured and predicted ignition delays at low pressures and temperature extremes. The agreement between the predicted and measured ignition delays is acceptable.