Term of Award

Summer 2024

Degree Name

Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair

Marcel Ilie

Committee Member 1

Valentin Soloiu

Committee Member 2

Mosfequr Rahman

Abstract

Drastic improvement in cost effectiveness of high-power computing resources has generated a great interest numerical simulation to reduce the overhead cost of engine manufacturing, maintenance, and environmental concerns of engine testing. To accomplish this goal, this research presents the differences between military F24 fuel and commercial aviation fuel Jet-A from a thermochemical and engine performance perspective. This experimental data was used to create and validate a numerical model of the engine used in the experiments fueled with both Jet-A and F24 fuels. The experimental data was collected using a research based single stage turbojet engine outfitted with many sensors for collecting engine characteristic data. Emissions data was collected for high priority species and noise/vibration data was gathered. This information was used to develop a scale numerical model of the engine. This simulation was a transient model using the EDM combustion model and k-ɛ turbulence model for engine speed of 60,000RPM, 65,000RPM, and 70,000RPM. The results show that F24 proves to be a more economical, better performing environmentally friendly fuel. F24 has lower internal engine temperatures by approximately 4.92% across all data collection points. F24 produced a minimum of 8% greater thrust with a 5.3% decrease in fuel flow as compared to Jet-A. F24 drastically reduced emissions in all species analyzed with a maximum reduction of 160% in THC. This greatly improved the thrust specific emission of F24. F24 also had greater SPL and acceleration at all engine speeds. The numerical model followed experimental trends very closely but resulted in some outlier percentage errors at very specific points to be as great as 31%. Furthermore, numerical analysis showcased the swirl effect produced by guide vanes and rotors. The increase in engine speed enhanced the swirl number of the air and resulted in more efficient combustion, as identified through the temperature, velocity, and fuel mass fraction contours. TKE contours identified areas of the engine that were susceptible to high energy eddies and therefore areas of flow path improvement in the turbine and exhaust stages.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

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