Measurement of mass diffusion coefficients of O_2 in aviation fuel through digital holographic interferometry

The experimental apparatus to measure the mass diffusion coefficients of O2 in aviation fuel was constructed based on the digital holographic interferometry method. The theory of mass diffusion coefficient and interference image processing were introduced in detail. The accuracy of the experiment was verified by measuring the mass diffusion coefficient of 0.33 mol/L KCl in aqueous solution at 298.15 K. The mass diffusion coefficients of O_2 in RP3 and RP5 aviation fuels were measured at temperature from 278.15 K to 333.15 K, and the Arrhenius equation was employed to fit the experimental data. In terms of the Stokes-Einstein equation, the viscosities of these two aviation fuels were tested to estimate the correlation among mass diffusion coefficient, viscosity and temperature. A uniform polynomial calculation correlation was proposed to predict the mass diffusion coefficients of O_2 in both RP3 and RP5 aviation fuels, and its accuracy is considerably higher than that of the Stokes-Einstein equation.

Oxygen concentration variation in ullage influenced by dissolved oxygen evolution

To determine the oxygen concentration variation in ullage that results from dissolved oxygen evolution in an inert aircraft fuel tank,the CFD method with a mass transfer source is applied in the present study.An experimental system is also designed to evaluate the accuracy of the CFD simulations.The dissolved oxygen evolution is simulated under different conditions of fuel load and initial oxygen concentration in ullage of an inert fuel tank with stimulations of heating and pressure decrease.The increase in the oxygen concentration in ullage ranges from 0.82%to 5.92%upon stimulation of heating and from 0.735%to 12.36%upon stimulation of a pressure decrease for an inert ullage in the simulations.The heating accelerates the release of the dissolved oxygen from the fuel by increasing the mass transfer rate in the mass transfer source and decreasing the pressure,thereby accelerating the dissolved oxygen evolution by increasing the concentration difference between the gas and the fuel.The time constant that represents the oxygen evolution rate is independent of the initial oxygen concentration in ullage of an inert tank but depends closely on the fuel load,temperature and pressure.The time constant can be fitted using a polynomial equation relating the fuel load to temperature in the heating stimulation with an accuracy of 4.77%.Upon stimulation of a pressure decrease,the time constant can be expressed in terms of the fuel load and the pressure,with an accuracy of 5.02%.

Effect of fuel type on the performance of an aircraft fuel tank oxygen-consuming inerting system

The properties of aviation fuel have a great influence on the performance of oxygenconsuming inerting systems. Based on the establishment of the catalytic inerting process, the flow relationship of each gas component flowing through the catalytic reactor was derived. The mathematical model of the gas concentration in the gas phase of the fuel tank was established based on the mass conservation equation, and the fuel tank model was verified by performing experiments.The results showed that the fuel type exerts a considerably higher influence on the performance of the oxygen-consuming inerting system compared to the corresponding influence on the hollow fiber membrane system, and the relative magnitude of the inerting rates of the four fuel types is RP5 > RP3 > RP6 > JP8. In addition, a higher catalytic efficiency or fuel load rate corresponds to a higher rate of decrease of the oxygen concentration in the gas phase, and the inerting time is inversely proportional to the suction flow rate of the fan. When different fuels are used, the amount of cooling gas and water released from the inerting system are different. Therefore, the influence of fuel type on the system performance should be extensively considered in the future.

Theoretical study of ullage washing with mixed inert gas in a non-equilibrium state

The Mixed Inert Gas(MIG)produced by the novel Green On Board Inerting Gas Generation System(GOBIGGS)mainly consists of carbon dioxide,nitrogen and oxygen.Because of the large solubility of carbon dioxide in jet fuel compared with nitrogen,the no gas release or equilibrium model could not be employed any more.In this paper,first,a mathematical model of the ullage washing was set up to predict the variation of the oxygen concentration on ullage and in the fuel,and the gas evolution and dissolution rate were calculated by Fick's second law.Then,an experimental apparatus was constructed to verify the accuracy of the model.Finally,the numerical comparisons of ullage washing using Nitrogen Enriched Air(NEA)and MIG are presented under various flow rates and fuel loads,and the result reveals that the variation of the oxygen concentration on ullage is nearly identical whatever the inert gas is NEA or MIG.However,the variation of the oxygen concentration in the fuel is disparate,and the oxygen concentration decreases rapidly if the inert gas is MIG,especially when the fuel load is low or the flow rate of the inert gas is high.Besides,MIG could suppress the rising trend of the oxygen concentration on ullage when the aircraft ascends if the fuel tank is fully washed into an equilibrium state on ground.