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Combustion characteristics of sustainable aviation fuels in a scaled-down afterburner test rig

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2024

J. Bae
Affiliation:
Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
S. Chaudhuri
Affiliation:
Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
P. Canteenwalla
Affiliation:
National Research Council, Ottawa, ON, Canada
S. Yun*
Affiliation:
National Research Council, Ottawa, ON, Canada
*
Corresponding author: S. Yun; Email: Sean.Yun@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
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Abstract

This study investigates the combustion characteristics (lean blowoff (LBO), flashback, and combustion instability) of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) using a two-staged combustor arranged in tandem. The combustor consists of a first (main) burner with an axial swirler and a second burner (afterburner) with a V-gutter bluff-body. The main burner utilises a constant flow rate of CH4/Air as reactants, while the afterburner operates on the combustion product from the first burner, additional dilution air, and one of the six liquid test fuels (Jet-A, A-2, C-1, C-5, C-9, and JP-8/HRJ) as reactants. When test fuels with higher derived cetane number (DCN) are used in the afterburner, it is observed that LBO occurs at lower afterburner global equivalence ratios (${\phi _{af}}$). This is due to the smaller chemical time scale of those test fuels, which enables the flame to be sustained under higher flow speeds. This is consistent with the results of previous studies. Additionally, this study shows that flashback also occurs at lower equivalence ratio for test fuels with higher DCN. This is a new finding and can be explained in a similar way to LBO. As the operating conditions approach the LBO or exceed flashback limits, the reactivity of shear layer also decreases, creating favourable conditions for them to occur. Moreover, for test fuels with low DCN (C-1 and C-5), blowoff occurs instead of flashback as ${\phi _{af}}$ increases. This can be attributed to the stronger pressure perturbation resulting from combustion instability in these flames compared to others. It demonstrates a stronger correlation between the pressure perturbation and the heat release rate fluctuation for C-1 and C-5 than that of other test fuels at the same equivalence ratio. In conclusion, it was found that test fuels with higher DCN have advantages in terms of LBO and stability, however, they are more prone to flashback.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© National Research Council Canada, 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Aeronautical Society
Figure 0

Figure 1. Schematic of the in-tandem combustor: (a) the main combustor with swirler and (b) the afterburner with V-gutter.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Schematic of the experimental setup.

Figure 2

Table 1. Characteristics of test fuels used in this study [1, 6, 45]

Figure 3

Figure 3. (a) Test fuel properties of category A fuels and (b) distillation curves for category C fuels [1].

Figure 4

Table 2. Experimental test conditions

Figure 5

Figure 4. Operational limits of each test fuel.

Figure 6

Figure 5. ${\phi _{af}}$ at the lean blowoff (LBO) for each test fuel.

Figure 7

Figure 6. ${\phi _{af}}$ at the onset of the flashback for each test fuel.

Figure 8

Figure 7. CH*-CL image (upper) and direct image (lower) of A-2 under ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.6.

Figure 9

Figure 8. Relative shear layer reactivity standardised using ${I_{{\phi _{af}} = 0.5}}$ of (a) Jet-A, (b) A-2, (c) C-1, (d) C-5, (e) C-9, and (f) JP-8/HRJ.

Figure 10

Figure 9. The changes in averaged A-2 fueled flame shape according to the global equivalence ratio at the afterburner: (a) ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.47, (b) ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.41, and (c) ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.36.

Figure 11

Figure 10. The changes in averaged A-2 fueled flame shape according to the global equivalence ratio at the afterburner: (a) ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.48, (b) ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.58, (c) ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.68, and (d) ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.77.

Figure 12

Figure 11. Relationship between ${\phi _{af}}$ where the shear layer reactivity is highest and ${\phi _{af}}$ where the flashback occurs.

Figure 13

Figure 12. RMS pressure perturbations measured just after the honeycomb ($p'_{2}$) and near the V-gutter ($p'_{3}$) for each of the test fuels ((a) Jet-A, (b) A-2, (c) C-1, (d) C-5, (e) C-9, and (f) JP-8/HRJ) according to the ${\phi _{af}}$ along with the curve fits of the RMS pressures for the A-2 test fuel (shown as the red and blue lines).

Figure 14

Figure 13. Three-dimensional phase space [$p'_{2}$($t$), $p'_{2}$($t - \tau $), $p'_{2}$($t - 2\tau $)] for different ${\phi _{af}}$ using A-2.

Figure 15

Figure 14. RMS of $p'_{2}$ for each of the test fuels according to the Rayleigh index.

Figure 16

Figure 15. RMS of $p'_{2}$ according to the phase difference for each test fuel.

Figure 17

Figure 16. Joint probability density distribution between $p'_{3}$ and $q'$ under ${\phi _{af}}$ = 0.58 of (a) Jet-A, (b) A-2, (c) C-1, (d) C-5, (e) C-9, and (f) JP-8/HRJ flames.

Figure 18

Figure 17. Phase difference between $p'_{3}$ and $q'$ for each test fuel according to the location of intensity centre from V-gutter tip.