Device for measuring the oxidation stability and/or the thermal stability of a fuel by means of a microfluidic chip
AssigneeIfp Energies Nouvelles
InventorsMaira Alves Fortunato, Laurie Starck, Aurelie Mouret, Christine Dalmazzone, Nicolas Pannacci
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a device (1) for measuring the oxidation stability and/or the thermal stability of any type of fuel, including diesel fuel, by miniaturization of the test system by use of a microfluidic technique. The physical phenomena to which fuels are subjected are reproduced by the microchannels (12) of the microfluidic chip (7), which comprise a representation of at least one of the fuel injection and the fuel circulation for a drive system, an internal-combustion engine or an aircraft reactor for example.
Claims17
A system for measuring at least one of oxidation stability and thermal stability of fuel, the system comprising a fuel supply, a microfluidic chip, a circulation system for circulating the fuel within the microfluidic chip from the fuel supply, and a measuring system for measuring at least one of the oxidation stability and thermal stability of the fuel, the measuring system being connected to the microfluidic chip, the microfluidic chip comprising a microchannel circuit for circulation of the fuel, the microchannel circuit comprising a representation of at least one of injection and circulation of the fuel for a drive system of an engine or a reactor, and includes a system for measuring flow rate variation caused by fuel degradation and formation of deposits in the microfluidic chip of flow of the fuel caused by variation of a physical property of the fuel, including two flowmeters which are respectively upstream and downstream from the microfluidic chip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.