Alternative aviation fuels combustion experiments

Supervisors: Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian and Dr Kevin Hughes.

As a consequence of concern over increasing greenhouse gas emissions, along with issues of availability and security of supply of conventional fossil fuels, there is a growing pressure to consider the use of alternative fuels in the aviation sector. However, before this can happen a thorough investigation of both the physical and chemical properties of proposed alternative fuels is required.

This project aims to address the uncertainty over the combustion behaviour of alternative fuels by a combination of an experimental and theoretical study. Laminar flames of alternative aviation fuels will be probed by the techniques of laser induced fluorescence along with gas sampling to elucidate the flame structure, which will then be modelled using the one-dimensional flame structure code, PREMIX. This will allow the development and validation of chemical kinetic models of these alternative fuels combustion.

For further information contact Professor Derek B Ingham (d.ingham@sheffield.ac.uk).