Numerical Study on Pipeline Pressure Surge of the Large Aircraft Fuel System

Abstract

The sudden closure of the refueling valve during the refueling process will cause the water hammer phenomenon in the pipeline of the large aircraft fuel system and produce pressure waves propagating along the pipeline. In serious cases, it will cause severe damage to the pipeline. The pressure surge in the pipeline can be affected by many design factors. In this study, the numerical modeling method of the large aircraft fuel system is studied using the Flowmaster program, and the accuracy of steady and transient state analysis of the simulation method is verified by experimental data. Based on this numerical method, a complete system-level simulation model of the large aircraft fuel system was established. Using this model, the effects of valve closure speed, diameter of the refueling main pipe, and refueling volume flow rate on pipeline pressure surge during the refueling process are investigated. The results indicate that all three factors have a significant impact on the pipeline pressure surge of the fuel system. The effect of the valve closing speed and the pipe diameter on the pressure surge of the pipeline is nonlinear and gradually weakened with the decrease of valve speed and the increase of pipe diameter, while the effect of refueling volume flow rate on the pipeline pressure surge is approximately linear.

Modeling and simulation of aircraft siphoning fuel transfer system

“…The sudden closure of the delivery valve can cause water hammer, which means the valve inlet pressure rises sharply and the pressure fluctuation propagates in the pipeline. Paper [10] shows that the closing curve of the valve has a significant effect on the pressure wave. In order to reduce the impact pressure, the movement speed of the spool should be gradually reduced to zero in the closing stage.…”

“…Fault prediction can be realized by injecting faults into the system simulation model, and furthermore we can diagnose, identify and categorize faults through algorithms such as neural networks [4][5][6][7] . Commonly used aircraft fuel system simulation software are Flowmaster, MATLAB/Simulink, AMESim and EASY5 [8][9][10] . In the above-mentioned simulation research, the model of valve is oversimplified.…”

Performance optimization design of wide-body aircraft pressure refueling system

“…Pinheiro N conducted modeling and simulation of the fuel system based on AMESim [9]. Tu Y conducted modeling and simulation of the A320 aircraft refueling system based on Flowmaster, and analyzed the pressure distribution in the fuel line network [10]. Liu M developed a pressure refueling model based on Flowmaster, checked the impact pressure and ventilation capacity of the system [11].…”

A Simulation Model for Small Aircraft Fuel System Design

“…The simulation environment provides a platform for developing an onboard fuel system management program with predefined actions for each studied failure mode. (Ellström & Gavel, 2013;Hutchison et al, 2014;Tu et al, 2022) developed methods to predict and assess pressure surges in aircraft fuel systems, discussing critical design and safety considerations. (Yue et al, 2010) analysed the heat management in a fighter aircraft fuel system through 1D thermal fluid simulations.…”