The Army's Fire Resistant Fuel (FRF) program is currently being used to defend against the threat of vehicle fuel fires resulting from unconventional warfare encountered in the Middle East. Fire Resistant Fuels are based upon JP-8, which is now the primary fuel for the Army ground services. The goal of FRF development is to reduce susceptibility to ignition at standard storage conditions while still serving as a fuel for the Army's diesel vehicles.

Two preliminary tests were conducted to narrow down a field of candidates developed by Luna Innovations to a final set of five FRF. Dynamometer testing was used to determine peak power of the supplied Yanmar 2V750 engine. Fuel fire resistance characteristics were defined and compared using a rotating disk anti-misting characterization system. Fuels were characterized based upon spray characteristics including velocity and droplet diameter as well as through ignition testing. For these tests, FRF were compared to Diesel and Jet-A results.

Results from this testing has shown that two fuels, both JP-8 emulsions, met the basic criteria of a fire resistant fuel. Engine testing trends showed that both fuels surpassed the peak power output of Diesel. Rotary atomization ignition testing resulted in no ignition for both fuels.

As a supplementary study, cone calorimetry testing was performed to determine effective heats of combustion. Results from experimentation demonstrated that the energy content of the FRF is not of primary importance to engine performance or flame resistance. All data, analysis and trends are located in the appendices.