Stationary self-propagation combustion with variations in the total layer thickness of compression-bonded Ni-sputtered Al foil multilayers

•Stationary SHS of mechanically bonded multilayers are obtained for the first time.•The total layer thickness has a crucial role to obtain stationary self-propagation.•The total layer thickness influenced consistencies of the propagation velocity.

Mechanically bonded Al/Ni multilayers have numerous applications such as high temperature bonding and local heat sources if their stable self-propagation high temperature synthesis is controllable. In this study, stationary self-propagating reactions in Al/Ni multilayers are obtained through controlling the total layer thickness using micrometer-scale bilayer thicknesses. While stationary self-propagation is not obtained in multilayers with total layer thicknesses of 180–360 μm, it is consistently observed in multilayers with total layer thicknesses of 630–810 μm. The total layer thickness influenced the consistency of the propagation velocity of the combustion reactions in the compression-bonded Ni-sputtered Al foil multilayers. The minimum total layer thickness for a stationary propagation is identified as between 540 and 630 μm in the Al/Ni multilayers.