Thermal stress stability of hydrocarbon fuels under supercritical environments

Abstract

This study investigates the thermal stressing characteristics of hydrocarbon fuels to develop thermally stable fuels for supersonic vehicle applications. The thermal stability characteristics of two multicomponent hydrocarbon fuels, namely F-1 and F-2 fuels, under subcritical and supercritical conditions, are examined for a wide range of temperatures (30–500 °C) and pressures (15–50 bar) using a semi-batch reactor. Various analysis techniques, such as UV-Vis spectrophotometry, ASTM D86 distillation, gas chromatography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etc., are used to characterize the feed and product properties. The study showed that the fuels are reasonably stable up to around 400 °C and above 40 bar pressure. The stability of the fuels is relatively less under subcritical pressure at elevated temperatures. The amount of gum formation increased with the increase of both temperature and pressure parameters. Further, the SEM analysis showed oval-shaped and ribbon-like structures in the solid deposits. The present investigation may be useful in developing an appropriate fuel for regenerative cooling in supersonic applications.

Keywords:

• Characterization
• hydrocarbon fuel
• solid deposition
• supercritical conditions
• supersonic
• thermal stability

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), DST, India, for funding (CRG/2020/01214) the present work, thankful to the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, India, and BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, India, for extending the necessary supports and facilities for the present work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Science and Engineering Research Board.