Behavior of Alternative Fuels Injected as a Liquid Jet Into a Crossflow

Abstract

A number of replacement fuels for JP-8 are currently under development to assure a secure source of fuel for aviation applications. Examples include Fischer-Tropsch derived liquids from coal or gas, or hydroprocessed fuels derived from vegetable oil or animal fats. The present effort focuses on examining how various candidate fuels behave upon injection into a subsonic crossflow. Characteristics such as droplet size, velocity, and dispersion are measured for the different fuels. As a result, the role of fuel type in the behavior of the spray can be assessed. In addition, the extent to which existing correlations or other models can describe the impact of the liquid properties on these characteristics is evaluated. The results show that systematic variation in liquid penetration occurs along with differences in column breaktime and frequency of the breakpoint motion. On the other hand, general droplet sizes, velocities, and volume flux profiles, at least measured on a time averaged basis exhibit little differences. The results suggest momentum flux captures the majority of the behavior as long as actual local values for the parameters are used (e.g., actual liquid jet velocity)

Liquid Jets in Subsonic Air Crossflow at Elevated Pressure

“…For the purposes of this paper, this research can be subdivided into breakup regime [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], mean droplet size and distribution [1][2][3][4][5][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], and spray penetration [1][2][3][4][5][6]11,12,[20][21][22][23][24]. Applications are numerous including industrial and agricultural sprays but lend particularly well to avi ation engines including ramjets, scramjets, turbojet augmenters, and liquid rockets.…”