Any Fuel, Any Time, Anywhere: Systematic Development of Fuel Surrogates to Enable Simulation-Based Engineering of Omnivorous Military Engines

Case Study performed in 2014.

Contributors (TA 4): Angela Violi, Jason Martz, André Boehman, Doohyun Kim†, Dongil Kang† (UM), Marcis Jansons, Naeim Henein, Amit Threstha†, Umashankar Joshi†, Ziling Zheng†, Krishnaraj Udayachalam†, Xin Yu†, Xi Luo†, Douglas Harriman† , (WSU), Eric Sattler, Pete Schihl (GVSC) (†Students)

The Army’s diesel engines must be capable of consuming globally sourced JP-8 fuels with a broad range of chemical and physical properties. The extent of these properties can be challenging, complicating operations such as cold starting and the combustion phasing control required for optimal engine efficiency and durability.

New military engine and control system designs are necessary to capitalize on continuous advances in power density, durability, and fuel economy and fuel flexibility. However, the emissions constraints and associated hardware and fuel requirements of the commercial sector are creating a divergence between military and commercial sector designs. The next generation of military engines must therefore be developed specifically for the Army’s unique requirements. The development process will involve an analytical component requiring a simplified representation of the real fuel, known as a surrogate.

A unique modeling framework has been developed in this case study for the prediction of the surrogate fuel composition required to reproduce the chemical and physical properties of the real fuel. Experiments were then performed to validate and refine the surrogate and to provide further insight into its behavior relative to the real fuels. This framework is relevant to challenges faced by both the military and commercial sector, as alternative JP-8 and diesel fuels with widely varying properties become more prevalent.