Development of an Experimental Database and Kinetic Models for Surrogate Jet Fuels

The engineering and scientific community has been searching for the identification of surrogate fuels that can reasonably represent the performance and emissions behavior of jet fuels (e.g., Jet A, JP-8) in engines. Many proposals exist in the literature, but there has been no consensus of opinion. It has been recognized that if the surrogate (or its) components were identified and agreed upon, then the research community could focus their resources on the development of chemical kinetic models for accurate representation of this surrogate. This manuscript reviews the findings and recommendations of a working group created by AFOSR, ARO and NIST to identify a surrogate fuel and/or its components. As a part of this study, the chemical kinetically limited processes within a gas turbine are identified. In addition, a palette of compounds is presented from which a surrogate fuel might be constructed. We initially suggested a simplified surrogate composed of n-decane, n-butylcyclohexane and n-butylbenzene and experiments were performed and