Home > Electrical/Electronics > Making Aircraft Combustion Chambers Sustainable

Making Aircraft Combustion Chambers Sustainable

A Norwegian researcher has conducted a ground-breaking study on aircraft combustion chambers, possibly resulting in a more environmentally sustainable way of powering planes.

Researcher Nicholas Worth from the Norwegian University of Science at Technology (NTNU) is the lead researcher on a project aiming to discover a more environmentally friendly way of powering aeroplanes.

Some of the most harmful emissions from plane exhausts are nitrogen oxides. The odourless colourless gas forms when the engines burn at a high temperature. This type of pollution can trigger issues with human lung functions.

“You’ll find a lot of these fumes at airports. On top of that you have greenhouse gas emissions that come from the combustion of the fuel itself,” Worth says.

While it is widely believed that greenhouse gas emissions from aircrafts account for 2% of global emissions, a vast amount of research indicates that the emissions amount to more than 10%.

Aeroplanes have a gas turbine engine that is powered by aviation gasoline. This fuel is derived from petroleum, a highly combustible fuel that is detrimental to reduction of air pollution. The engine of an aircraft burns fuel in a ring-shaped combustion chamber which contains a number of individual flames.

The shape of this combustion chamber can make the flames, that consume the fuel, change shape, flicker or become completely unstable, this is also known as thermoacoustic instability.

READ ALSO  Renewables To Be Only Energy Growth Source In 2020 As Markets Witness 'Biggest Shock Since World War II

The process of studying these flames has only ever been conducted one flame at a time, until now. Worth studied between 12 and 18 flames in a ring, in a variety of combustion chambers, using various types of gas.

“Combustion chambers come in all kinds of sizes. In helicopters, they’re small, in jets they’re big and in power stations huge. So far, no one has been able to predict whether a small change in the chamber will result in a change for the entire engine. Or how the flames in the chamber change as the fuel changes,” says Worth.

Source: scitecheuropa

Total Views: 90 ,
0
0

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *