Autoignition Testing of Hydrocarbon Fuels Using the Astm-E659 Method
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AUTOIGNITION TESTING OF HYDROCARBON FUELS USING THE ASTM-E659 METHOD C. D. MARTIN J. E. SHEPHERD GRADUATE AEROSPACE LABORATORIES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CA 91125 GALCIT REPORT EDL2020.001 Copyright c 2020 Published by California Institute of Technology AUTOIGNITION TESTING OF HYDROCARBON FUELS USING THE ASTM-E659 METHOD Conor Martin Joseph E. Shepherd Graduate Aerospace Laboratories California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA 91125 GALCIT REPORT EDL2020-001 March 2020 Abstract Knowledge of the thermal ignition characteristics of aviation kerosene (Jet A) fuel is crit- ical to the design, certification and safe operation of aircraft. The complexity and variability in the composition of commodity fuels like Jet A makes combustion test results difficult to reproduce and computational modeling challenging. For this reason surrogate fuels with well- defined mixtures of a small number of molecular species, have been developed for use in com- bustion testing. Previous studies on surrogates have focused on gas turbine combustion con- ditions (high temperature and high pressure) and validated surrogate performance with shock tube and rapid compression machine (RCM) data. However, conditions in these tests differ greatly from those of interest for accidental thermal ignition events in aircraft which typically occur at relatively low pressure (< 1 bar) and temperatures near the so-called autoignition tem- perature (AIT), 200 -250◦C. In this regime, there is a scarcity of well-documented ignition test data for Jet A and a complete lack of data for surrogates. With this problem in mind, an experimental study of the low-temperature and pressure autoignition phenomenon was conducted using the ASTM-E659 standardized test method for both Jet A and surrogate fuels as well as the individual molecular components of the surrogates. The ASTM test apparatus and methodology are described in detail. The limitations of the methodology are discussed as are the challenges in relating the ASTM test results to actual thermal ignition hazards in aircraft. Suitable surrogate fuels, the Aachen and JI mixtures, were identified from published studies and their alkane and aromatic constituents were individually studied in addition to two batches (POSF-4658 and POSF-10325) of standardized Jet A. Ignition tests were carried out for a wide range of fuel concentrations and temperatures. Results of autoignition tests exhibited complex, non-binary ignition behavior including both luminous and non-luminous cool flames. These behaviors have been categorized into four distinct ignition modes which were used to classify each observed ignition event. The two Jet A batches showed similar ignition behavior with minimum ignition temperatures of 229 ± 3◦C and 225 ± 3◦C respectively. Both surrogates tested exhibit substantially similar ignition behavior to Jet A with comparable minimum igni- tion temperatures for the Aachen (219 ± 3:1◦C) and JI (228 ± 3◦C). The JI mixture appears to be the most suitable representative surrogate to Jet A in the low-temperature thermal ignition regime. The aromatic components Toulene and 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene had much higher min- imum ignition temperatures (508:2 ± 5:0◦C and 476:5 ± 4:8◦C respectively) than Jet A, the surrogates, or the alkane components n-Hexane (235:3 ± 3:1◦C), n-Decane (204:3 ± 3:1◦C), n-Dodecane (202:2 ± 3:1◦C). i Contents 1 Introduction1 1.1 Autoignition Background...............................1 1.2 Surrogate Fuels....................................4 2 Methodology6 2.1 Procedure.......................................6 2.2 Equipment.......................................8 2.3 Surrogate Fuel Preparation.............................. 10 3 Results 11 3.1 Classifications..................................... 11 3.2 Alkanes........................................ 13 3.3 Aromatics....................................... 18 3.4 Single-component fuels summary.......................... 21 3.5 Multi-component fuels................................ 22 4 Conclusion 27 References 30 Appendix A Blown up Temperature Traces from Figure 5 33 Appendix B Ignition data 34 B.1 n-Hexane....................................... 34 B.2 n-Decane....................................... 35 B.3 n-Dodecane...................................... 36 B.4 Isocetane....................................... 38 B.5 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene (TMB)............................ 39 B.6 Trans-decalin..................................... 41 B.7 Toluene........................................ 42 B.8 Jet A (POSF-4658).................................. 44 B.9 Jet A (POSF-10325)................................. 46 B.10 Aachen Surrogate................................... 47 B.11 JI Surrogate...................................... 48 Appendix C Example Temperature Traces By Fuel 51 C.1 n-Hexane....................................... 51 C.2 n-Decane....................................... 52 C.3 n-Dodecane...................................... 53 C.4 Isocetane....................................... 54 C.5 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene (TMB)............................ 55 C.6 Trans-decalin..................................... 56 C.7 Toluene........................................ 58 C.8 Jet A (POSF-4658).................................. 59 ii C.9 Jet A (POSF-10325)................................. 61 C.10 Aachen Surrogate................................... 63 C.11 JI Surrogate...................................... 64 iii List of Figures 1 Relevant design space for thermal ignition as compared to validated regime of existing literature surrogates and Jet A ignition data.................5 2 ASTM-E659 test apparatus..............................7 3 Ceramic mold for ASTM-E659 testing........................9 4 JI surrogate GC-FID................................. 10 5 Modes of ignition classification............................ 14 6 n-Hexane test results................................. 15 7 n-Hexane Statistical Analysis............................. 16 8 n-Decane test results................................. 17 9 n-Dodecane test results................................ 18 10 Elongated Flask.................................... 19 11 Isocetane test results................................. 20 12 1,2,4 Trimethylbenzene test results.......................... 21 13 Trans-decalin test results............................... 22 14 Toluene test results.................................. 23 15 POSF-4658 (Jet A) test results............................ 24 16 POSF-10325 (Jet A) test results........................... 25 17 Aachen surrogate test results............................. 26 18 JI surrogate test results................................ 27 19 Temperature Traces: Figure 5............................. 33 20 Temperature Traces: n-Hexane............................ 51 21 Temperature Traces: n-Decane............................ 52 22 Temperature Traces: n-Dodecane........................... 53 23 Temperature Traces: Isocetane............................ 54 24 Temperature Traces: 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene (TMB)................ 55 25 Temperature Traces: Trans-decalin.......................... 57 26 Temperature Traces: Toluene............................. 58 27 Temperature Traces: Jet A (POSF-4658)....................... 60 28 Temperature Traces: Jet A (POSF-10325)...................... 62 29 Temperature Traces: Aachen Surrogate........................ 63 30 Temperature Traces: JI Surrogate........................... 65 iv List of Tables 1 Fuel blend compositions...............................6 2 JI surrogate (Batch 1) results from GC-FID analysis................. 11 3 Classifications of various ignition behaviors observed in ASTM-E659....... 12 4 Summary of AIT values................................ 28 5 Shots: n-Hexane.................................... 34 6 Shots: n-Decane.................................... 35 7 Shots: n-Dodecane.................................. 36 8 Shots: Isocetane.................................... 38 9 Shots: 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene............................ 39 10 Shots: Trans-decalin................................. 41 11 Shots: Toluene.................................... 42 12 Shots: Jet A (POSF-4658).............................. 44 13 Shots: Jet A (POSF-10325).............................. 46 14 Shots: Aachen Surrogate............................... 47 15 Shots: JI Surrogate.................................. 48 v 1 Introduction 1.1 Autoignition Background Thermal ignition is the phenomenon wherein a substance spontaneously ignites in the absence of an ignition source such as a flame or spark. The required energy for ignition in these cases is instead supplied via thermal heating. The study of thermal ignition has been of interest to the combustion community for over a century with initial motivation arising from areas like process safety where the use, storage and shipment of combustible liquids was rapidly becoming commonplace in many areas of the world economy. The safety hazards associated with the handling of such substances were not well understood which motivated early attempts to understand ignition characteristics of combustible liquids. Particular early interest was focused on attempts at determining some threshold ignition criterion. This led to the development of standardized methods for determining minimum autoignition (AIT) or self ignition temperature (SIT) criteria for spontaneous thermal ignition of a given substance in air at atmospheric pressure. Early on in this effort there were several diverse test methods proposed for the spontaneous ignition