Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer for Use with Two Dimensional Gas Chromatography
Abstract
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, under authority of 10 U.S.C. ¤ 2362 and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OASD(R&E)), allocated $28 million to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) with equipment and instrumentation enhancements to improve their research and education capabilities in scientific disciplines important to the defense mission. The program aims enhance the capacity of HBCU/MI to participate broadly in defense research programs and activities and to increase the number of graduates, including underrepresented minorities, in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A time of flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) is requested that will provide detection, identification and quantification of complex military aircraft and diesel fuel related species needed for experimentally-based chemical kinetics simulations. It is the companion instrument to an existing two dimensional gas chromatograph (GCxGC) located in the High Pressure Shock Tube (HPST) laboratory of Prof. Kenneth Brezinsky in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Quantitative knowledge of aircraft and diesel fuel species is essential to programs currently funded by both the Army Research Office (ARO) and also the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). The aim of the AFOSR study is to provide experimentally determined concentrations of intermediate chemical products of the pyrolysis and oxidation of currently used military jet fuels as a function of temperature and pressure. These values are expected to serve as inputs into emerging models for fuel combustion that have taken advantage of the observation that within a given combustion reaction, there is a separation in time, temperature, and position within a combustion chamber between the pyrolysis process pathways Ñ which can be lumped together for kinetics modeling Ñ and the onset of oxidation. This two-stage or hybrid approach allows the modeling of both pyrolysis and oxidation to be simplified, which can then lead to greater applicability of these predictive models for actual fuels. The TOFMS will be directly connected to the existing GCxGC, which was purchased with funds from a DURIP award in 2008 with the expectation that as the need developed a TOFMS would be added. Accordingly, the GCxGC is ready for the addition of the TOFMS and interfacing by the manufacturer, LECO, would be standard. The two devices together Ñ the GCxGC and the TOFMS Ñ would operate as a package analytic system directly connected to the end plates of the two different shock tubes as is currently done in the laboratory. The lifetime of the TOFMS when interfaced to the GCxGC is expected to be at least 10 years. Installation of the TOFMS is included in the purchase price. Also included is training for one individual and a one year warranty. Maintenance of the instrumentation after the one year warranty will be paid for, as needed, with funding budgeted as materials and supplies in ongoing research programs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 06, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1610498
Entities
People
- Kenneth Brezinsky
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of Illinois at Chicago