Measurement and correlation of jet fuel viscosities at low temperatures

Apparatus and procedures were developed to measure jet fuel viscosity for eight current and future jet fuels at temperatures from ambient to near -60 C by shear viscometry. Viscosity data showed good reproducibility even at temperatures a few degrees below the measured freezing point. The viscosity-temperature relationship could be correlated by two linear segments when plotted as a standard log-log type representation (ASTM D 341). At high temperatures, the viscosity-temperature slope is low. At low temperatures, where wax precipitation is significant, the slope is higher. The breakpoint between temperature regions is the filter flow temperature, a fuel characteristic approximated by the freezing point. A generalization of the representation for the eight experimental fuels provided a predictive correlation for low-temperature viscosity, considered sufficiently accurate for many design or performance calculations.