Preliminary Surrogate Mixture Models for the Thermophysical Properties of Rocket Propellants RP-1 and RP-2

We have developed surrogate mixture models to represent the thermophysical properties of two kerosene rocket propellants, RP-1 and RP-2. The surrogates were developed with a procedure that incorporated experimental data for the density, sound speed, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and the advanced distillation curves for samples of the two fuels. The surrogate for RP-1 contains four components (α-methyldecalin, n-dodecane, 5-methylnonane, and heptylcyclohexane), and the surrogate for RP-2 contains five components (α-methyldecalin, n-dodecane, 5-methylnonane, 2,4-dimethylnonane, and heptylcyclohexane). Comparisons with experimental data demonstrate that the models are able to represent the density, sound speed, viscosity, and thermal conductivity of both fuels to within (at a 95% confidence level) 0.4, 2, 2, and 4%, respectively. The volatility behavior, as measured by the advanced distillation curves, is reproduced to within 0.5%.