Jet A Explosion Experiments: Laboratory Testing

This report describes a series of experiments and analyses on the flammability of Jet A (aviation kerosene) in air. This is a progress report on ongoing work. The emphasis so far has been on measuring basic explosion parameters as a function of fuel amount and temperature. These parameters include vapor pressure, flammability limits, peak explosion pressure and pressure as a function of time during the explosion. These measurements were undertaken in order to clear up some fundamental issues with the existing data. The report is organized as follows: First, we give some background with data from previous studies and discuss the fuel weathering issues. Second, we describe the facility used to do combustion experiments, the combustion test procedures and the results of the combustion experiments. Third, we give estimates of peak pressure, review the standard analysis of pressure histories and discuss the application to the present data. Fourth, we review the standard approach to flammability limits and the issues in determining Jet A flammability. Fifth, we discuss the problems associated with measuring vapor pressure and describe our results for Jet A. Sixth, we present a model for Jet A which illustrates the issues in analyzing multicomponent fuels. Finally, we apply these results to TWA 800 and summarize our conclusions to date