Formulation of a Jet Fuel Surrogate and Its Kinetic Chemical Mechanism by Emulating Physical and Chemical Properties of Real Jet Fuel

Guangze Li, Boxuan Cui, Chenglin Zhang, Liuyong Chang () and Longfei Chen ()
Additional contact information
Guangze Li: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Boxuan Cui: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Chenglin Zhang: Zhongfa Aviation Institute of Beihang University, Hangzhou 311115, China
Liuyong Chang: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Longfei Chen: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 18, 1-26

Abstract: The application of jet fuel in gas turbines and diesel engines adheres to the Army’s single-fuel forward policy, streamlining supply chains. To ensure precise engine combustion numerical studies, surrogate fuels and mechanisms should faithfully replicate real fuel properties and combustion traits. In this work, a new four-component jet fuel surrogate containing 39.05% n-dodecane/21.79% isocetane/11.49% decalin/27.67% toluene by mole fraction is formulated based on a property optimizer. The new-formulated fuel surrogate can satisfactorily emulate the chemical and physical properties of real jet fuel, including cetane number (CN), threshold sooting index (TSI), molecular weight (MW), lower heating value (LHV), the ratio of hydrogen and carbon (H/C), liquid density, viscosity, and surface tension. Furthermore, a reduced and robust kinetic chemical mechanism (containing 124 species and 590 reactions) that could be directly employed in practical engine combustion simulations has also been developed for the proposed surrogate jet fuel. The mechanism is validated through comprehensive experimental data, including ignition delay time (IDT) determined in shock tubes and rapid compression machines (RCMs), species mole fractions measured in premixed flames and jet stirred reactors (JSRs), and laminar flame speeds. Generally, the property deviations of the jet fuel surrogate are less than 2% except for MW (10.73%), viscosity (5.88%), and surface tension (8.71%). The comparison results between the predictions and measurements are in good agreement, indicating that the current kinetic mechanism is capable of reflecting the oxidation process of real jet fuel. The current mechanism can accurately capture variations in the ignition delay time in the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) region as well. In the future, the proposed surrogate jet fuel could be applied in practical engine computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations.

Keywords: fuel property; ignition delay time; species profile; laminar flame speed; reduced chemical mechanism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13792/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13792/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:13792-:d:1240910

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().