- Author
-
Summer, S. M.
- Title
- Mass Loading Effects on Fuel Vapor Concentrations in an Aircraft Fuel Tank Ullage.
- Coporate
- Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ
- Sponsor
- Department of Transportation, Washington, DC
- Report
-
DOT/FAA/AR-TN99/65
September 1999
12 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM: Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center's Fire Safety Section's Full-Text technical reports page (in Adobe Acrobat portable document format [PDF]): http//www.fire.tc.faa.gov/reports/report.stm AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900. Website: http://www.ntis.gov
- Keywords
-
aircraft fuel tanks
|
vapors
|
flammability
|
JP-1 jet fuel
|
ullage
- Identifiers
- fuel vapor; Center Wing fuel Tank (CWT)
- Abstract
- This report discusses experiments performed within a simulated fuel tank approximately l/20 the size of a typical B-747 center wing fuel tank (CWT). The vapors generated within the ullage of this tank were analyzed under different mass loadings in an effort to determine the effects of the mass loading and fuel distribution. It was determined from these tests that in order to have a substantial effect on the flammability of the vapor within the CWT, the mass loading would have to be somewhere between 0.08 and 0.15 kg/m3. A substantial effect was defined as a minimum 20% decrease in the maximum hydrocarbon count when compared to the average of all tests conducted with larger mass loadings. In addition, it was found that while the distribution of the fuel has no effect on the peak flammability (vapor composition) that is reached, it does have a significant effect on how long it takes to reach the final state. The less dispersed the liquid fuel is, the longer it will take the vapor to reach its maximum flammability point.