Thermal management of fuel in advanced aeroengine in view of chemical recuperation

Advanced aeroengine with endothermic hydrocarbon fuel cooling works as chemical recuperative cycle. In order to study the thermal management of fuel in view of chemical recuperation, models of flowing cracked hydrocarbon fuel inside engine cooling channels are developed and validated. Based on 1-D model, different methods are put forwarded to control the chemical recuperation effectiveness and effective residence time is defined to distinguish global methods and local methods. The control of fuel mass flow rate or height of cooling channel can be regarded as global methods, while the control of operating pressure can be considered as a local method. The efficiency of the global method is limited by the allowable wall temperature. In contrast, the local method can both control the chemical recuperation effectiveness and improve the heat transfer performance. Based on the multiple dimensional models, conclusions got from the 1-D model can be modified and extended. The results of multiple dimensional models show that 3-D phenomena have significant effects on the chemical recuperation effectiveness. Nonuniformities of temperature and conversion caused by the 3-D phenomena are bad for improving the chemical recuperation effectiveness. Reduction of the cooling channel width is good for improving the conversion and the chemical recuperation effectiveness.