The jet fuels anti-wear properties indicator

Abstract

There are three main fuel brands for jet engines of civil aviation used: domestic TS-1 and RT and foreign, produced in relatively small volumes in Russia, JET A-1 (JET A-1). Since the end of the 2000s, foreign manufacturers have made claims to the quality of the mass-used domestic fuel brand TS-1, and these claims have not been specified. However, the service life of a number of foreign engines operating on TS-1 fuel has been reduced by 50%. This circumstance can be caused by both subjective reasons – commercial and political interests of equipment manufacturers, and the objective ones. The main objective reason may be that recently several Russian plants producing TS-1 fuel have begun to produce composite propellant under the same name, where products of secondary oil refining processes are added to the straight-run fractions. These fuels meet the requirements of the standard (GOST 10227-86), which does not contain an indicator that characterizes the anti-wear properties of jet fuels. In the standard for JET A-1 fuel, anti-wear properties are normalized, and they are also normalized in the standard for domestic fuels for supersonic aviation. The article presents comparative tests of anti-wear properties of samples of jet fuels used in the civil aviation. The article substantiates the relevance of the anti-wear properties indicator in the standard for domestic brands of jet fuels for subsonic aircraft introduction, as well as the comparative analysis of the anti-wear properties of fuels produced by various Russian oil refineries. Indicators and methods for assessing the anti-wear properties of aviation fuels can be different. As such an indicator, it is proposed to use the anti-wear properties indicator calculated after testing fuel samples on a four-ball friction machine.