Climate change and pollution urge the aeronautical sector to reduce its environmental footprint. Complying with strict emissions reduction has led gas turbines fuel injection systems to be operated with a lower fuel/air ratio while considering short-run alternative fuels, named Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs).
Recent numerical efforts predicting the physical and chemical properties of SAFs have successfully driven recommendation on practical SAFs usage. However, the impact of SAFs on the flame Lean Blow-Out (LBO) and pollutants (NOx and soot) is not yet understood. Thus, comparative experimental and numerical work is proposed to deeply evaluate those phenomena and help the development of innovative combustor designs compatible with SAF. Experiments were performed on academic burners (CRSB, SSB), isolated industrial injection systems (MICADO, HERON) and full annular combustor configurations including real engines (BEARCAT)) and combustor test beds (Annulight). As a consequence, performing Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of these test benches with the help of the Analytically Reduced Chemistry (ARC) methodology is required to capture the fuel effect accurately on both extinction and pollutants emissions in order to go deeper in the analysis of the aforementioned physical and chemical phenomena. Simulations on real engines then validates the overall integration of the proposed developments.
CERFACS, France;
Safran Helicopter Engines, France.