First gaseous Sulfur (VI) measurements in the simulated internal flow of an aircraft gas turbine engine during project PartEmis

Gaseous S(VI) (SO 3 + H 2 SO 4 ) has been measured by chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) in the simulated internal flow of an aircraft gas turbine in a test rig at ground level during the PartEmis 2002 campaign. Building on S(VI) and calculated total sulfur S T the abundance ratio ε = S(VI)/S T was determined. The measurements to be reported here were made at two sampling points, for two engine test conditions representative of old and modern aircraft cruise and for a fuel sulfur content FSC = 1270 ppm. For both cruise conditions the measured ε increased with increasing exhaust age from the high pressure to the low pressure stage. For each pressure stage ε was higher in the modern cruise condition. The maximum ε (2.3 ± 1.2%) was obtained for modern cruise and the low pressure stage. Our present data suggest that modern engines have a somewhat higher conversion efficiencies than old engines.