Rapid Measurement of Emissions From Military Aircraft Turbine Engines by Downstream Extractive Sampling of Aircraft on the Ground: Results for C-130 and F-15 Aircraft (POSTPRINT)

Abstract

Aircraft emissions affect air quality on scales from local to global. More than 20% of the jet fuel used in the U.S. is consumed by military aircraft, and emissions from this source are facing increasingly stringent environmental regulations, so improved methods for quickly and accurately determining emissions from existing and new engines are needed. This paper reports results of a study to advance the methods used for detailed characterization of military aircraft emissions, and provides emission factors for two aircraft: the F-15 fighter and the C-130 cargo plane. The measurements involved outdoor ground-level sampling downstream behind operational military aircraft. This permits rapid change-out of the aircraft so that engines can be tested quickly on operational aircraft. Measurements were made at throttle settings from idle to afterburner using a simple extractive probe in the dilute exhaust. Emission factors determined using this approach agree very well with those from the traditional method of extractive sampling at the exhaust exit. Emission factors are reported for CO2, CO, NO, NOx and more than 60 hazardous and/or reactive organic gases. Particle size, mass and composition also were measured and are being reported separately (Cowen et al., 2008b). Comparison of the emissions of nine hazardous air pollutants from these two engines with emissions from nine other aircraft engines is discussed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA637007

Entities

People

  • Alexander Laskin
  • Bradley Goodwin
  • Chester W. Spicer
  • Darrell W. Joseph
  • Howard Mayfield
  • Jan Satola
  • John V. Ortega
  • Kenneth A. Cowen
  • M. L. Alexander
  • Michael W. Holdren

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Airframes
  • Aldehydes
  • Alkanes
  • Alkenes
  • Climate Change
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Products
  • Environmental Protection
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Greenhouse Effect
  • Jet Engine Fuels
  • Jet Engines
  • Transport Aircraft
  • Turbines
  • Turbofan Engines
  • Turboprop Engines

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Technology.