Experimental and Numerical Investigations into Evaporation Rates of Some Fuels Utilized in Aviation Gas Turbine Engines

Fuels utilized in aviation gas turbine engines are multi-component and supplied into the two-phase flow environment (fuel and air) under high temperature and pressure conditions of the combustion chamber. Examining aviation fuel evaporation in these conditions is quite challenging. Currently, there are different models available in the literature for examining evaporation characteristics for both mono- and multi-component drops in the multi-phase flow medium. However, a scientific approach to select suitable models for practical fuels such as the ones utilized in aviation gas turbine engines is scarce. In this paper, an experiment has been conducted under quiescent droplet conditions, zero velocity gas flow, and at the atmospheric pressure. Combining the experimental outcomes and evaporation rates obtained from different models, suitable models for computing evaporation rates of aviation fuels is analysed and suggested. The analysis shows significant gaps in evaporation rates when using different models. It is suggested that using an equilibrium model like the M2 model is one option to provide reasonable evaporation rates for small droplets (e.g. <0.1 mm). However, further studies are required to provide a fair conclusion for modelling aviation fuel drops when accounting for multi-component issues as well as variable drop sizes.