Establishing a Practical and Accurate Combustion Mechanism for JP-10

JP-10 is a single-compound C10H16 fuel that is the principal air-breathing missile fuel used in the U.S. at present. We propose that its effective use can be advanced by modeling its chemistry and combustion physics, testing these predictions against laboratory and full-scale experiments, and then using the information for computational design and operations. In this Phase I research project, we propose to develop the JP-10 decomposition subset of a full combustion mechanism of elementary reactions, based on analogies with known reactions and from computed predictions of kinetics, thermochemistry, and transport properties. Scientists at Spectral Energies, LLC will work with collaborators and the Navy to determine appropriate validation experiments in an aerosol shock tube to study the relevant high temperature decomposition products of JP-10 over a range of temperatures, pressures, and equivalence ratios relevant to ramjet and scramjet propulsion. Spectral Energies will also initiate simulations using Chemkin-based combustion models for comparison with experimental data from the literature. These results would set the basis for Phase II experimental tests of the reaction set, improvements to it, and mechanism reduction for efficient combustor modeling. Time dependent measurements of temperature, the hydroxyl radical, and water decomposition products will also be used during the Phase II to validate predictions of ignition and flame propagation.