Abstract
The thermal stability characteristics of kerosine-type fuels are examined using a heated-tube apparatus which allows independent control of fuel pressure, fuel temperature, tube-wall temperature and fuel flow rate. This method is identified simply as a “constant wall temperature method”. It is different from a previous widely used method, which is identified as a “constant heat flux method”. It is a single-pass system. Rate of deposition on the tube walls are measured by weighing the test tube before and after each test.
For a fuel temperature of 250°C, it is found that deposition rates increase continuously with increase in tube-wall temperature. This finding contradicts the results of previous studies which had led to the conclusion that deposition rates increase with increase in wall temperature up to a certain value (around 650 K) beyond which any further increase in wall temperature causes the rate of deposition to decline.
The present results show clearly that the constant wall temperature method is more suitable for assessing the thermal stability of gas turbine fuels.
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Chin, J.S., Lefebvre, A.H. Experimental study on hydrocarbon fuel thermal stability. J. of Thermal Science 1, 70–74 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02650809
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02650809