Effect of novel alternative fuels and compositions on vibrations of a gas turbine engine

Stricter emissions legislation has driven the aviation industry to explore alternative fuels that can efficiently replace or blend with current Jet fuels. With this change it has become vital to investigate the effects of these fuels on combustion instabilities. In this study a re-commissioned small gas turbine (Honeywell GTCP85 APU engine) has been used to test various blends of Jet A-1 and UOP along with four other novel fuels. A detailed analysis of vibrational response of these fuels upon combustion has been presented in this study. The study was conducted at the University of Sheffield’s Low Carbon Combustion. The focus of this study is to investigate the vibrational response of different fuels and their compositions with varied aromatic content.