Seminars

Abstract: The idea of using simple, surrogate fuels to emulate the combustion performance of logistical, broad spec fuels in gas turbine engines has been in place for 40 or more years. Purposes have varied including (1) use of a known reference fuel with unchanging performance characteristics in a combustor, (2) a reference fuel for which thermodynamic, or detailed chemical kinetic models can be derived and then used to predict combustor performance and most recently (3) a variable surrogate definition to describe the combustion performance characteristics of various alternative fuels. A significant amount of research has been performed in the last ten years to explore the latter two areas. Much of these efforts have been focused at developing the combustion characteristics in laboratory flames and extensions of reaction kinetic models to large molecular weight fuels. Some efforts have explored the impact of different fuels on the performance in combustors. This overview will review progress at multiple laboratories and discuss successes, challenges and uncertainties for future research.