Ignition Delay Time and Oxidation of a Kerosene Aviation Fuel and a Blended Jet50-Bio50 Fuel

Abstract

Ignition delay and oxidation of two jet aviation fuels, Jet A-1 and its blended fuel with a bio-jet fuel in half, are investigated by experiments and numerical simulations. From their major combustion properties, derived cetane number and molecular weight of the blended fuel, Jet50-Bio50, are higher than those of Jet A-1, and its H/C ratio and threshold sooting index are lower because more n-alkanes are contained in a bio-jet fuel and aromatic compounds are not. The surrogate fuels of the two jet fuels are constructed for numerical simulations of their ignition and oxidation. Early ignition of the blended fuel measured in a shock tube experiment is investigated by comparing the speciation profiles of several products from the two fuels, and their global reactivity is measured in a laminar flow reactor. Oxidation of the blended fuel is initiated at a lower temperature than Jet A-1, and reaction pathways of the two fuels are analyzed at two temperatures of 600 and 1100 K, respectively. At a low temperature of 600 K, reaction pathways of the major surrogate components for the two fuels are significantly different, while they are almost the same at high temperatures. The active radical of OH is produced more by the oxidation of Jet50-Bio50, and its oxidation is initiated at a lower temperature than Jet A-1, leading to earlier ignition. At low temperatures, the difference between initiation times of oxidation of the two fuels is much larger than at high temperatures. At both temperatures, production rates of the major reaction steps, where OH is produced, are higher in Jet50-Bio50 than in Jet A-1.