Detection of very large ions in aircraft gas turbine engine combustor exhaust: charged small soot particles? [An article from: Atmospheric Environment]

This digital document is a journal article from Atmospheric Environment, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Small electrically charged soot particles (CSP) present in the exhaust of a jet aircraft engine combustor have been detected by a Large Ion Mass Spectrometer and quantitatively measured by an Ion Mobility Analyzer. The size and concentration measurements which took place at an aircraft gas-turbine engine combustor test-rig at the ground covered different combustor conditions (fuel flow=FF, fuel sulphur content=FSC). At the high-pressure turbine stage of the engine, CSP-diameters were mostly around 6nm and CSP-concentrations reached up to 4.8x10^7cm^-^3 (positive and negative) corresponding to a CSP-emission index E"C"S"P=2.5x10^1^5 CSPkg^-^1 fuel burnt. The E"C"S"P increased with FF but did not increase with FSC. The latter indicates that sulphur was not a major component of the large ions. Possible CSP-sources and CSP-sinks as well as CSP-roles are discussed.