The Soap-Bubble Method of Studying the Combustion of Mixtures of CO and O2

This investigation, carried out at the National Bureau of Standards at the request and with the financial assistance of the national Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, is a detailed description of the soap-bubble, or constant-pressure method as applied to the explosive oxidation of CO.

A series of values of the speed of flame in space in various mixtures of CO and O2 containing a constant percentage of water vapor was obtained by the constant-volume method. These results served as a guide in the perfection of the soap-bubble method.

The latter has been refined to a degree which makes possible precise determinations of the speeds of flame in space and relative to the active gases, of expansion ration and temperatures attained in mixtures of CO, O2, and H2O. Results for this system of gases are reported over a wide range of mixture ratios, and a comparison with previous results by the same method is included.