The paper focuses on the theoretical and experimental study of the mechanisms of reaction mixture combustion in the ≪chemical oven≫ mode in a three-layer Ni–Al/Ti–Co/Ni–Al sample. Experimental studies were carried out in a reactor in an argon atmosphere at atmospheric pressure and an ambient temperature of 298 K on rectangular samples pressed from Ni–Al and Ti–Co powder mixtures in the form of a three-layer package. The Ti–Co acceptor layer was in the middle of the sample, and the Ni–Al donor layer was outside. The acceptor layer thickness was varied from 4.3 to 13 mm, while the donor layer thickness (4.7 mm) remained constant. It was found that as the acceptor layer thickness increases, the combustion wave front propagation velocity and reaction initiation temperature decrease, and the maximum temperature in the front remains constant and equal to the melting point of the final product. The time of acceptor layer heating before the reaction increases. The acceptor mixture reaction proceeds in the thermal explosion mode when the thickness of the acceptor layer exceeds that of the donor one. Maximum temperature in this case is higher than the melting point of the final product. The inner layer synthesis modes change with an increase in the acceptor layer thickness: stationary – pulsating – extinction. The mathematical model of the three-layer sample high-temperature synthesis in dimensional variables is constructed taking into account heat transfer with the environment. As a result of experimental studies and numerical calculations, the critical thickness of the inner layer was found to be 15 mm, at which the inner layer combustion becomes impossible at fixed sizes of donor layers. Critical conditions for the combustion wave propagation along the acceptor layer are weakly dependent on the external heating source. The experimental technique and mathematical model of the layered system combustion can be used to assess the critical conditions for the metal composite synthesis in the frontal combustion mode.
