The autoignition of tetralin, an endothermic fuel

Abstract

The history of the evolution of jet fuel, starting with JP-1 in the early 1950s and resulting in JP-8-100 is presented. The importance of fuel properties from a perspective of balancing availability, cost, and performance is illustrated with insight from the XB-70, SR-71, and U-2. Current jet fuel advancements are discussed, and found to revolve around the need for increased heat capacity for high speed aircraft. Benefits of increased thermal management, such as reduced emissions, engine weight, and increased performance are also discussed. Endothermic fuels, which undergo controlled pyrolysis at high temperatures reduce the formation of coke through hydrogen donation, and absorb energy in their pyrolysis reaction. Due to the potential applications of tetralin, an endothermic hydrocarbon, as an additive or fuel to increase the capacity of aircraft fuels to absorb energy, the ignition delay characteristics of tetralin are experimentally investigated and compared with other fuels containing aromatic and naphthenic functionalities. Future work should focus on developing a kinetic model to describe tetralin oxidation and ignition for use in combustion simulations.