Multi-component Evaporation of Sustainable Aviation Fuel Droplets

Abstract

Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) will gradually replace current fossil fuels (e.g., Jet A)over the next few decades to achieve the decarbonization goals of the aviation industry by2050. Despite efforts to design drop-in biofuels which meet specific fuel property requirements, uncertainties remain on the fuel behavior across the engine operating range. Typical chemical pathways to produce SAF result in simpler composition spectrums with potentially few mixture components. Thus, preferential evaporation may become important and affect the evaporation and subsequent combustion characteristics. Currently available experimental data focusing on Category C biofuels (i.e., SAF) from the National Jet Fuels Combustion Program (NJFCP) already shows preferential evaporation effects on the fuel distillation curve at atmospheric pressure. In this study, a computational framework based on a real-fluid thermo physical model is used to analyze the evaporation of Category C fueld roplets at various combustion chamber operating conditions. This includes low pressure –low temperature conditions (e.g., start-up, idle) and high pressure – high temperature environments (e.g., cruise, take-off).