Comparative thermoeconomic analysis of using different jet fuels in a turboshaft engine for aviation applications

Fuel efficiency of helicopter and aircraft propulsion systems become more important in recent years due to the rising fuel costs and environmental impacts of aviation emissions. In this regard, in the present study, the use of three conventional types of jet fuels in a turboshaft engine is investigated from exergy and exergoeconomic viewpoints. Component-based exergy and cost calculations are accomplished by developing thermodynamic and exergoeconomic models which their accuracy is validated using the available experimental data in the literature. To examine the effects of important design/operating variables on the engine performance, a parametric study is performed for the considered fuels to assess exergy and economic performance. Also, the influence of flight altitude is investigated on the engine performance in terms of net output power, exergy efficiency, and unit cost of power. The results indicate that, JP-4 jet fuel yields better performance for considered turboshaft engine in terms of exergy efficiency and unit cost of power. It is shown that the engine exergy efficiency for JP-4 fuel is around 9 % and 6% higher than that for JP-5 and JP-8 fuels, respectively.