Prediction of emissions in turbojet engines exhausts: relationship between nitrogen oxides emission index (EINOx) and the operational parameters

The prediction of nitrogen oxides emissions in turbojet engines exhausts remains a field of immense importance given the increasing coercive environmental requirements in relation to the emissions from turbojet engines. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) are subjected to limits fixed by legislators in a lot of countries because of their toxic character beyond specific concentrations in the air and their effects on climate change. However, analytical methods used to evaluate the quantities of the emissions are not efficiently established because of a lack of complete understanding of the phenomena governing the formation of the NOx in turbojet engines. It is a combination of chemical, thermal, and fluid dynamic processes. In this paper, a more accurate empirical correlation is determined for the prediction of nitrogen oxides emission index (EI_NOx) in turbojet engines exhausts using the main combustion operational parameters. The relationship between EI_NOx and the following parameters: fuel flow rate, output power, pressure ratio, efficiency, flame temperature and combustor inlet temperature is analysed with 227 ICAO certification data measured on turbojets engines from manufacturers such as Pratt and Whitney, General Electric, CFM International and Rolls-Royce. A set of 556 test point data used to show flame and combustor inlet temperature relationship with NOx emission index is from the work of G.F. Pearce et al. on twelve gas turbine engines. From this analysis it can be noticed that the relationship between EI_NOx and flame temperature is strong but not as the relationship between EI_NOx and the combustor inlet temperature. Since the combustor inlet temperature is easier to measure, EI_NOx value can be deduce from it. By predicting NOx emissions from combustor inlet temperature we can avoid exhausts gas measurements and analysis, saving on time and money.