[PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Al vortex combustion

["Michael B. Holt" <mholt@richmond.edu>]

Paul Suds wrote:
> Based on those results and the necessity for the vortex, you could formulate
> a basic design. It's hard to get discouraged when you know someone has built
> a working model. If you know anything about inventions, you will find that
> the most successful inventions are those that have been thought about and
> rethought about; designed and redesigned.

You need to read "A Sea-Water-Aluminum Torpedo Propulsion System," by
Leonard Greiner and F. A. Hansen Jr., present at the AIAA Torpedo 
Propulsion Conference, Newport RI, July 23-26, 1963.  

The conclusion:

	"A torpedo propulsion system, which exploits reaction
between aluminum and sea water as a power source, has been analyzed.
IT appears capable of at least doubling the performance of other
systems at moderate depths and of at least a 25% improvement at
great depths.  The system appears capable of practical develop-
ment, with only the combustor requiring extrapolation beyond the 
current state of the art.  The suggested aluminum-feed system
should minimize problems in this area, because it injects the
fuel into the cumbustor as a hot, molten metal which is rela-
tively easy to react.  This aluminum-sea water system appears 
capable of the greatest performance possible from a chemically
powered torpedo powerplant."

(I just found this in "Underwater Missile Propulsion," edited by 
Leonard Greiner and published by Compass Publication in 1967.)


Mike