TY - JOUR
T1 - Mesophase and pyrolytic carbon formation in aircraft fuel lines
AU - Eser, Semih
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgelnents-Thiws ork was supported at the Fuel Science Program, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 by Sandia National Laboratories which is funded by the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC04-76DPOO789. The author would like to express his gratitude to Prof Harold H. Schobert of Penn State for his generous support. Helpful discussions with Mr William E. Harrison III and Mr T. Edwards of Air Force Wright Laboratory and Dr Elmer Klavetter of Sandia National Laboratories are gratefully acknowledged. Mr Michael Parzynski and MS Ying Peng conducted the experiments on tetradecane and n-butylbenzene, respectively. Dr Yanlai Liu obtained the FTIR spectra and Mr Lei Hou conducted the NMR experiments. Mr Ronald M. Copenhaver assembled the tubing reactors and prepared all the optical pellets.
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - Exposure of jet fuel to high temperatures in aircraft fuel lines triggers pyrolysis reactions which eventually lead to deposition of carbonaceous solids on metal surfaces. This is a particularly important problem for advanced future aircraft which may expose fuel to very high temperatures. Different optical textures were observed in samples of deposits formed in different sections of aircraft fuel systems. Deposits from a burner fuel line consist only of pyrolytic carbon, indicating that gas phase reactions were responsible for solid formation. Afterburner line deposits, on the other hand, contain both pyrolytic carbon and carbonaceous mesophase structures, implicating also liquid phase carbonization reactions. The FTIR data shows that solids containing mesophase consist of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons with a low degree of condensation and alkyl substitution. In contrast, solids with pyrolytic carbon structure are composed of highly condensed, large polyaromatic species. It is clear that jet fuels go through extensive cracking, aromatization, and aromatic polymerization reactions before solid deposition takes place in the fuel lines.
AB - Exposure of jet fuel to high temperatures in aircraft fuel lines triggers pyrolysis reactions which eventually lead to deposition of carbonaceous solids on metal surfaces. This is a particularly important problem for advanced future aircraft which may expose fuel to very high temperatures. Different optical textures were observed in samples of deposits formed in different sections of aircraft fuel systems. Deposits from a burner fuel line consist only of pyrolytic carbon, indicating that gas phase reactions were responsible for solid formation. Afterburner line deposits, on the other hand, contain both pyrolytic carbon and carbonaceous mesophase structures, implicating also liquid phase carbonization reactions. The FTIR data shows that solids containing mesophase consist of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons with a low degree of condensation and alkyl substitution. In contrast, solids with pyrolytic carbon structure are composed of highly condensed, large polyaromatic species. It is clear that jet fuels go through extensive cracking, aromatization, and aromatic polymerization reactions before solid deposition takes place in the fuel lines.
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U2 - 10.1016/0008-6223(96)00007-3
DO - 10.1016/0008-6223(96)00007-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0029735218
SN - 0008-6223
VL - 34
SP - 539
EP - 547
JO - Carbon
JF - Carbon
IS - 4
ER -