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Experimental analysis on nano scale flash powder composition in fireworks manufacturing

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Abstract

The flash powder composition is used in the fireworks industry to manufacture the firecrackers which consist of potassium nitrate, aluminium and sulphur in 75 μm range. This study focuses on the synthesis of nano and micro flash powders with different trials of composition. The particle sizes of the nanochemicals are 142.8, 93.10 and 91.28 nm for KNO3, Al and S, respectively. The nano flash powder is mixed with micron flash powder in different ratios to manufacture the crackers and thus the noise level for the crackers are found. Thermal analysis was conducted in differential thermal and thermo gravimetric analyser. Also, impact sensitivity and friction sensitivity of the nano flash powder are analysed. The nano flash powder shows low ignition temperature compared to micron and also has high mechanical sensitivity. Fire crackers which contains one gram of 100 % nano flash powder emits the threshold noise level of 125 dB(AI) in spite of 4 g of 10 % nano flash powder for the same composition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, 626 005, India

    N. Selvakumar

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, 626 005, India

    A. Azhagurajan

  3. BGR Energy System Ltd, Chennai, India

    A. Suresh

Authors
  1. N. Selvakumar
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  2. A. Azhagurajan
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  3. A. Suresh
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Correspondence to A. Azhagurajan.

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Selvakumar, N., Azhagurajan, A. & Suresh, A. Experimental analysis on nano scale flash powder composition in fireworks manufacturing. J Therm Anal Calorim 113, 615–621 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-012-2749-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-012-2749-9

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