Stability of RJ-5 Fuel
Stability of RJ-5 Fuel

Summary/Abstract: In this work, the stability of a bicyclic high-energy-density fuel, RJ-5 (C14H18), has been inspected. The tendency of RJ-5 jet fuel to form hydroperoxide structure under storage conditions has been examined. The negative ∆Gorxn values showed that oxidation of fuel through hydroperoxidation is a spontaneous process. It was shown that the bridgehead carbon atoms and the carbon atoms that link the norbornane structure with the other ring system are the vulnerable centers to hydroperoxidation because the corresponding hydroperoxides are quite low in total electronic energies. The thermodynamic calculations showed that these hydroperoxide structures may rearrange themselves to minimize their energy forming different molecules. These rearranged molecules have been identified using rearrangement mechanism in the literature. The probable rearrangement products were determined and confirmed by thermodynamic calculations. The heat of combustion values of RJ-5, hydroperoxides and rearrangement products of hydroperoxides have been calculated using T1 heat of formation data. The results showed that the formation of hydroperoxide molecules under storage conditions worsens the performance of RJ-5 jet fuel.

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