Improved Reaction Models for Petroleum and Alternative JP-5/8 Fuels

ABSTRACT: In recent years, diversification of energy dependence on foreign oil has attracted the use of alternative fuels such as the Fischer-Tropsch jet fuels and hydro-treated renewable jet fuels. However, there are combustion stability issues with alternative fuels in the aircraft engines including augmentors. In addition, the U.S. military has been using JP-8 as the single battle field fuel to power both diesel engines and generators for electricity. However, operating compression ignition engines with JP-8 have encountered various technical and performance related issues. Therefore, it is important to study the effect of chemical and physical properties of JP-8 and alternative fuels on combustion at conditions relevant to augmentors and diesel engines. Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc. (CSE) has developed a detailed surrogate kinetic mechanism to model the combustion characteristics of jet fuels including alternative fuels. In the current work, CSE will acquire new experimental data at low pressure augmentor conditions as well as high pressure diesel engines conditions with jet fuel and it surrogate components. These experimental data will be used to improve and validate the CSE surrogate kinetic mechanism for wide range of conditions including augmentors and diesel engines with vitiation. BENEFIT: The ultimate result of this research will be a comprehensive chemical kinetic mechanism that can be used for predicting combustion properties of petroleum-based jet fuels as well alternative fuels. CSE has developed a four-component surrogate kinetic model for augmentor conditions with vitiation in an earlier SBIR. This model will be improved and validated against the experimental data obtained in the current work at low pressure augmentor conditions as well as high pressure diesel engines conditions. This detailed surrogate mechanism will benefits U.S. Military to evaluate the combustion properties of various jet fuels where experimental data are not available. In addition the detail kinetic model that will be developed in this work will be incorporated into the rkmGen software, which has been under development through an Air Force funded SBIR with CSE. rkmGen is a GUI-driven chemical kinetic software that can be used for various chemical kinetic computations including the development of reduced kinetic models. Therefore, outcome of this work will benefits the OEMs as well as CFD users and vendors.