Experimental Study of External Fuel Vaporization

Abstract

Experiments were run to investigate the feasibility of a flash vaporization system for aircraft gas turbine engines. The experiments consisted of a determination of boiling points, dew points, critical temperature, critical pressure, heat transfer coefficients, deposit formation rates, and deposit removal in a flowing system. Three fuels were used in the experiments including Jet-A, Experimental Referee Broad Specification fuel (ERBS), and a premium No.2 diesel fuel. Engine conditions representing the Energy Efficient Engine (E³) at SLTO, cruise and idle were simulated in the vaporization system and it was found that single phase flow was mainrained in the heat exchanger and downstream of the throttle. Deposits encountered in the heat exchanger represented a thermal resistance as high as 1.3 x 10₋₃ M₂K/watt and a deposit formation rate over 1000 μgC/cm₂hr. It was found that the deposit can be removed by cleaning with air at a temperature of 720 K for 10 min.