Thermodynamic Performance and Creep Life Assessment Comparing Hydrogen- and Jet-Fueled Turbofan Aero Engine

Emmanuel O Osigwe,Arnold Gad-Briggs,Soheil Jafari,Theoklis Nikolaidis,Pericles Pilidis,Bobby Sethi

doi:10.3390/app11093873

Emmanuel O Osigwe, Arnold Gad-Briggs + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app11093873

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Journal: Applied sciences	Publication Date: Apr 25, 2021
Citations: 10	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Cranfield University

Abstract

There is renewed interest in hydrogen as an alternative fuel for aero engines, due to their perceived environmental and performance benefits compared to jet fuel. This paper presents a cycle, thermal performance, energy and creep life assessment of hydrogen compared with jet fuel, using a turbofan aero engine. The turbofan cycle performance was simulated using a code developed by the authors that allows hydrogen and jet fuel to be selected as fuel input. The exergy assessment uses both conservations of energy and mass and the second law of thermodynamics to understand the impact of the fuels on the exergy destruction, exergy efficiency, waste factor ratio, environmental effect factor and sustainability index for a turbofan aero engine. Finally, the study looks at a top-level creep life assessment on the high-pressure turbine hot section influenced by the fuel heating values. This study shows performance (64% reduced fuel flow rate, better SFC) and more extended blade life (15% increase) benefits using liquefied hydrogen fuel, which corresponds with other literary work on the benefits of LH2 over jet fuel. This paper also highlights some drawbacks of hydrogen fuel based on previous research work, and gives recommendations for future work, aimed at maturing the hydrogen fuel concept in aviation.

Highlights

In recent years, liquefied hydrogen (LH2 ) as a fuel for gas turbines has received fresh traction both in aero and industrial applications, due to its potential benefit of allowing very clean combustion and zero-carbon emission [1]
The foremost consideration in the successful developmentThis and study deployment of this technology is for performance simulation and assessment uses a turbofan aero engine the performance and creep life assessment, Performance assessment is necessary to minimize the risks and costs associated with the comparing the impacts of LH2 and jet fuel
This paper provides performance and creep life assessment when comparing LH2 with jet fuel in a turbofan aero engine

Summary

Introduction

In recent years, liquefied hydrogen (LH2 ) as a fuel for gas turbines has received fresh traction both in aero and industrial applications, due to its potential benefit of allowing very clean combustion and zero-carbon emission [1]. With the growing demand for stringent environmental regulations on fossil fuel, it is predicted that hydrogen could be a viable alternative for jet fuel [2,3] It has an extensive stability limit, global availability, reduced noise, and low maintenance cost. Hydrogen is projected to be safer than jet fuel, since hydrogen is a lighter gas and can escape into the atmosphere without much hazardous effect [4,5]. Another justification for hydrogen is its high specific energy, which is almost. The benefit of high energy per unit mass is countered by the low density of hydrogen, requiring high storage volume, which could erode aircraft performance relative to jet fuel [6,7,8]

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