Soot formation and precursor chemistry in Counterflow flames of aviation fuel surrogates

Saggese, Chiara; Whitesides, Russell; Wagnon, Scott W.; Chatterjee, Tanusree; Hagen, Fabian P.; Vlavakis, Petros; Schraud, Nils; Trimis, Dimosthenis

doi:10.1016/j.proci.2025.105816

Soot formation and precursor chemistry in Counterflow flames of aviation fuel surrogates

Journal Article · Mon Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Proceedings of the Combustion Institute

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2025.105816· OSTI ID:2588157

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology (KIT) (Germany)

To meet market demands, the aviation sector is interested in utilizing drop-in Synthetic Aviation Turbine Fuels (SATF), either as neat fuels or in blends with conventional Jet A. SATF currently approved in standard specifications may have lower aromatic content with significant fractions of normal, branched, and cyclo-alkanes. Fundamental studies on soot formation from aviation fuels (Jet A, SATF) and their surrogate components are essential to understand how fuel composition influences soot and soot precursor formation. Here, this study reports new measurements of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and soot in counterflow diffusion flames (CDFs) of aviation fuel surrogates. Both intrusive and non-intrusive diagnostics are employed to determine the profiles of temperature, gas phase species, PAHs (up to C16), and soot volume fraction (SVF) in CDFs of iso-octane and surrogate mixtures. These measurements shed light on the transition of soot precursors to primary soot particles. In addition to serving as a common surrogate component in Jet A surrogate mixtures, iso-octane is a template species for larger, less volatile branched alkanes found in SATF mixtures. The newly developed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) PAH and soot model successfully captures temperature, precursor species, and SVF profiles for the mixtures and conditions discussed in this work. Finally, a high-fidelity surrogate for Jet A is proposed that matches targeted physical and chemical properties well, while leveraging the wide range of candidate fuel molecules available in the LLNL detailed chemical model. The proposed surrogate formulation is validated against newly acquired measurements of the surrogate and literature measurements of Jet A. These new experiments and simulations provide critical insights into the PAH and soot formation from aviation fuels. Reaction pathways which require further investigation are highlighted, such that future work may bridge the remaining quantitative gaps in predicting soot formation from aviation fuel surrogates and surrogate components.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344

OSTI ID:: 2588157

Report Number(s):: LLNL--JRNL-2005161

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Journal Name: Proceedings of the Combustion Institute Vol. 41; ISSN 1540-7489

Publisher:: Elsevier BVCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Aviation fuels
Counterflow diffusion flames
Kinetic modeling
Soot formation
Surrogate formulation

Soot formation and precursor chemistry in Counterflow flames of aviation fuel surrogates

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