Effect of pressure on thermal cracking of china RP-3 aviation kerosene under supercritical conditions

Abstract Thermal cracking of hydrocarbon fuel plays a significant role in the regenerative cooling technology development. Hereby, a numerical simulation for pressure effect on thermal cracking of China RP-3 aviation kerosene under supercritical conditions has been conducted based on a complete set of conservation equations. A four-species surrogate for China RP-3 aviation kerosene is introduced to calculate the thermophysical properties. The modified Kumar–Kunzru chemical kinetics model consisting of one primary reaction and twenty-three secondary reactions is adopted to simulate the cracking process. Detailed variations of thermophysical property, thermal cracking behavior, flow and heat transfer processes of the fuel are investigated. Simulation results indicate that the conversion of China RP-3 aviation kerosene is proportional to the pressure when the thermal cracking occurs adequately. Increasing pressure would enhance the heat transfer when the fuel temperature is below 830 K and a reversed feature is observed as the fuel temperature further increases. The heat transfer will be weakened when the fuel temperature approaches the critical value if the pressure is lower than 7 MPa.