Evaporation and Groundfall of JP-4 Jet Fuel Jettisoned by USAF Aircraft

Abstract

An experimental and modeling effort was undertaken to determine the physical fate of JP-4 jet fuel discharged from an aircraft in flight. A computer model was developed to simulate evaporation and free-fall of fuel droplets in the atmosphere. In order to apply this model to jettisoned fuel, an experimental study was performed to determine the droplet size distribution produced by the jettisoning process. This study featured in-flight sampling of the fuel plume from a KC-135 tanker aircraft. Sampling was also performed at ground level to determine whether the jettisoned fuel reached the ground in significant concentrations. For fuel jettisoning as low as 750 meters above the ground at temperatures around 11 C, no liquid fuel could be detected by ground observers and no significant hydrocarbon concentrations (greater than a few ppm C) were measured by the sampling.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1980
Accession Number
ADA109307

Entities

People

  • Harvey J. Clewell Iii

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Temperature
  • Aircrafts
  • Alkanes
  • Atmospheric Motion
  • Birds
  • Boiling Point
  • Chemistry
  • Drops
  • Ecology
  • Environment
  • Ground Level
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • Mass Transfer
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Tanker Aircraft

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Aerospace Test and Evaluation
  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Petroleum Engineering