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US 11,041,464 B1Granted
Microwave flame enhancement of energetic material combustion
AssigneeIowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsJames B. Michael, Travis R. Sippel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus, systems, and methods for enhancing solid propellant performance include seeding combusting energetic material, including solid propellant, with microwave energy at a controlled power and duration.
Claims19
A method for modifying multiphase diffusion combustion flames produced from decomposition or volatilization of an energetic material, wherein the energetic material is a solid energetic material or a liquid energetic material, the method comprising:
- a. localizing application of an electromagnetic energy to the multiphase diffusion combustion flames to thereby increase ionization in the multiphase diffusion combustion flames compared to ionization from combustion of the energetic material without the localizing application of the electromagnetic energy, wherein the electromagnetic energy comprises:
- a microwave energy of
- a pulsed mode, wherein the pulsed mode comprises pulse width modulation (PWM) of 5 μs pulse duration of a multimode 1 kW average continuous power 1-4 GHz S-band or 8-12 GHz X-band microwave source with 100 kW peak power;
- and
- b. controlling coupling of the electromagnetic energy to the multiphase diffusion combustion flames by mode and power to modify a decomposition rate of the solid energetic material or a volatilization rate of the liquid energetic material to thereby perturb combustion from an equilibrium state.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.