Ignition Characteristics of a Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Jet Fuel

Author(s):  
P. Gokulakrishnan ◽  
M. S. Klassen ◽  
R. J. Roby

Ignition delay times of a “real” synthetic jet fuel (S8) were measured using an atmospheric pressure flow reactor facility. Experiments were performed between 900 K and 1200 K at equivalence ratios from 0.5 to 1.5. Ignition delay time measurements were also performed with JP8 fuel for comparison. Liquid fuel was prevaporized to gaseous form in a preheated nitrogen environment before mixing with air in the premixing section, located at the entrance to the test section of the flow reactor. The experimental data show shorter ignition delay times for S8 fuel than for JP8 due to the absence of aromatic components in S8 fuel. However, the ignition delay time measurements indicate higher overall activation energy for S8 fuel than for JP8. A detailed surrogate kinetic model for S8 was developed by validating against the ignition delay times obtained in the present work. The chemical composition of S8 used in the experiments consisted of 99.7 vol% paraffins of which approximately 80 vol% was iso-paraffins and 20% n-paraffins. The detailed kinetic mechanism developed in the current work included n-decane and iso-octane as the surrogate components to model ignition characteristics of synthetic jet fuels. The detailed surrogate kinetic model has approximately 700 species and 2000 reactions. This kinetic mechanism represents a five-component surrogate mixture to model generic kerosene-type jets fuels, namely, n-decane (for n-paraffins), iso-octane (for iso-paraffins), n-propylcyclohexane (for naphthenes), n-propylbenzene (for aromatics) and decene (for olefins). The sensitivity of iso-paraffins on jet fuel ignition delay times was investigated using the detailed kinetic model. The amount of iso-paraffins present in the jet fuel has little effect on the ignition delay times in the high temperature oxidation regime. However, the presence of iso-paraffins in synthetic jet fuels can increase the ignition delay times by two orders of magnitude in the negative temperature (NTC) region between 700 K and 900 K, typical gas turbine conditions. This feature can have a favorable impact on preventing flashback caused by the premature autoignition of liquid fuels in lean premixed prevaporized (LPP) combustion systems.

Author(s):  
Sulaiman A. Alturaifi ◽  
Tatyana Atherley ◽  
Olivier Mathieu ◽  
Bing Guo ◽  
Eric L. Petersen

Abstract In recent years, there has been an interest in finding a jet fuel alternative to the crude oil-based kerosene. Gas-to-liquid (GtL) fuel is being derived via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis processes by converting natural gas to longer-chain hydrocarbons which form the basis for jet fuel. In this study, new experimental ignition delay time measurements of GtL jet fuels have been determined at elevated pressures and temperatures. The measurements were conducted in a heated, high-pressure shock-tube facility capable of initial temperatures up to 200°C. Two GtL jet fuels were investigated, Shell GTL and Syntroleum S-8, which can be used in aviation applications at concentrations up to 50% blended with conventional oil-based kerosene. The ignition delay time measurements were conducted behind reflected shock waves for gaseous-phase fuel in air at a pressure around 10 atm and over a temperature range of 966 to 1266 K for two equivalence ratios, fuel lean (ϕ = 0.5) and stoichiometric (ϕ = 1.0). Ignition delay time was determined by observing the pressure and electronically excited OH chemiluminescence around 307 nm at the endwall location. Similar ignition delay times were observed for the two fuels at the fuel lean condition, while Syntroleum S-8 showed shorter ignition delay times at the stoichiometric condition. Comparisons are made with ignition delay time measurements for Jet-A previously conducted in the same facility and showed reasonable agreement over the tested conditions. The predictions from the available literature for GtL fuel surrogate kinetics models were obtained and compared with the experimental measurements.


Author(s):  
David Beerer ◽  
Vincent McDonell ◽  
Scott Samuelsen ◽  
Leonard Angello

Compositional variation of global gas supplies is becoming a growing concern. Both the range and rate-of-change of this variation is expected to increase as global markets for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) continue to expand. Greater fuel composition variation poses increased operational risk to gas turbine engines employing lean premixed combustion systems. Information on ignition delay at high pressure and intermediate temperatures is valuable for lean premixed gas turbine design. In order to avoid autoignition of the fuel/air mixture within the premixer, the ignition delay time must be greater than the residence time. Evaluating the residence time is not a straight forward task because of the complex aerodynamics due to recirculation zones, separation regions, and boundary layers effects which may create regions where the local residence times may be longer than the bulk or average residence time. Additionally, reliable experiments on ignition delay at gas turbine conditions are difficult to conduct. Devices for testing include shock tubes, rapid compression machine and flow reactors. In a flow reactor ignition delay data are commonly determined by measuring the distance from the fuel injector to the reaction front (L) and dividing it by the bulk or average flow velocity (U) under steady flow conditions to obtain a bulk residence time which is assumed to be equal to the ignition delay time. However this method is susceptible to the same boundary layer effects or recirculation zones found in premixers. An alternative method for obtaining ignition delay data in a flow reactor is presented herein, where ignition delay times are obtained by measuring the time difference between fuel injection and ignition using high speed instrumentation. Ignition delay times for methane, ethane and propane at gas turbine conditions were in the range of 40–500 ms. The results obtained show excellent agreement with recently proposed chemical mechanisms for hydrocarbons at low temperature/high pressure conditions.


Author(s):  
D. J. Beerer ◽  
V. G. McDonell

With the need to reduce carbon emissions such as CO2, hydrogen is being examined as potential “clean” fuel for the future. One potential strategy is lean premixed combustion, where the fuel and air are allowed to mix upstream before entering the combustor, which has been proven to curb NOx formation in natural gas fired engines. However, premixing hydrogen and air may increase the risk of autoignition before the combustor, resulting in serious engine damage. A flow reactor was set up to test the ignition delay time of hydrogen and air at temperatures relevant to gas turbine engine operations to determine maximum possible mixing times. The results were then compared to past experimental work and current computer simulations. The current study observed that ignition is very sensitive to the initial conditions. The ignition delay times follow the same general trend as seen in previous flow reactor studies: ignition within hundreds of milliseconds and relatively low activation energy. An experimentally derived correlation by Peschke and Spadaccini (1985, “Determination of Autoignition and Flame Speed Characteristics of Coal Gases Having Medium Heating Values,” Research Project No. 2357-1, Report No. AP-4291) appears to best predict the observed ignition delay times. Homogenous gas phase kinetics simulations do not appear to describe ignition well in these intermediate temperatures. Therefore, at the moment, only the current empirical correlations should be used in predicting ignition delay at engine conditions for use in the design of gas turbine premixers. Additionally, fairly large safety factors should still be considered for any design to reduce any chance of autoignition within the premixer.


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan Nicolas ◽  
Mohammad Janbozorgi ◽  
Hameed Metghalchi

Rate-controlled constrained-equilibrium method has been further developed to model methane/air combustion. A set of constraints has been identified to predict the nonequilibrium evolution of the combustion process. The set predicts the ignition delay times of the corresponding detailed kinetic model to within 10% of accuracy over a wide range of initial temperatures (900 K–1200 K), initial pressures (1 atm–50 atm) and equivalence ratios (0.6–1.2). It also predicts the experimental shock tube ignition delay times favorably well. Direct integration of the rate equations for the constraint potentials has been employed. Once the values of the potentials are obtained, the concentration of all species can be calculated. The underlying detailed kinetic model involves 352 reactions among 60 H/O/N/C1-2 species, hence 60 rate equations, while the RCCE calculations involve 16 total constraints, thus 16 total rate equations. Nonetheless, the constrained-equilibrium concentrations of all 60 species are calculated at any time step subject to the 16 constraints.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 906-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoya Wada ◽  
Alena Sudholt ◽  
Heinz Pitsch ◽  
Norbert Peters

Author(s):  
K. R. V. Manikantachari ◽  
Ladislav Vesely ◽  
Scott Martin ◽  
Jose O. Bobren-Diaz ◽  
Subith Vasu

Reduced mechanisms are needed for use with computational fluid dynamic codes (CFD) utilized in the design of combustors. Typically, the reduced mechanisms are created from the detailed mechanisms which contain numerous species and reactions that are computationally difficult to handle using most CFD codes. Recently, it has been shown that the detailed Aramco 2.0 mechanism well predicted the available experimental data at high pressures and in high-CO2 diluted methane mixtures. Further, a 23-species gas-phase mechanism is derived from the detailed Aramco 2.0 mechanism by path-flux-analysis method (PFA) by using CHEM-RC. It is identified that the reaction CH4+HO2⇔ CH3+H2O2 is very crucial in predicting the ignition delay times under current conditions. Further, it is inferred that species C2H3 and CH3OH are very important in predicting the ignition delay time of lean sCO2 methane mixtures. Also, the 23-species mechanism presented in this work is performing on par with the detailed Aramco 2.0 mechanism in-terms of simulating ignition delay times, perfectly-stirred-reactor estimates under various CO2 dilutions and equivalence ratios, and prediction of turbulence chemistry interactions. It is observed that the choice of equation-of-state has no significant impact on the ignition delay times of supercritical CH4/O2/CO2 mixtures but it influences supercritical H2/O2/CO2 mixtures considered in this work.


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