FUEL SYSTEM

What is an Aircraft Fuel System?

● All powered aircraft require fuel to operate the engine(s).
● A fuel system consists of:
○ Storage tanks
○ Pumps
○ Filters
○ Valves
○ Fuel lines
○ Metering devices
○ Monitoring devices
● The fuel system must provide an uninterrupted flow of contaminant-free fuel. (regardless
of the aircraft’s attitude)
● fuel tank must be able to withstand any vibration, inertia, fluid, and structural loads
without failure

History
● Fuel systems were remarkably simple . Fuel was gravity fed to the engine
● Higher performance gave rise to more complexity
○ The need for transfer and booster pumps
○ Multi-valve systems such that the flight crew could move fuel around the fuel
tanks according to the needs.
○ More accurate fuel gauging systems were required
○ The higher performance jet engine also required greater fuel delivery pressures
to avoid flame-out.
Fuel management system
● Modes of operation: (some or all required)
a. Fuel pressurization
b. Engine feed
c. Fuel transfer
d. Refuel/defuel
e. Fuel storage
f. Vent systems
g. Fuel dumping or jettison
h. In-flight refueling or Air-to-Air-Refueling (AAR)

a) Fuel pressurization
● required to assist in forcing the fuel under relatively low pressure from certain
tanks to others
● On some aircraft there may be no need for a pressurization system at all; it may
be sufficient to gravity feed the fuel or rely on transfer pumps to move it around
the system.
 ● For a combat aircraft (with a number of external fuel tanks) the relative regulating
pressure settings of the PRVs may be used to effectively sequence the transfer
of fuel from the external to internal tanks in the desired manner.
● For example, on an aircraft with under-wing and under-fuselage (ventral) tanks it
may be required to feed from under-wing external tanks first, then the internal
wing tanks and lastly the fuselage tanks. The PRVs may be set to ensure that
this sequence is preserved, by applying a higher differential pressure to those
tanks required to transfer fuel first.
Engine feed
● The supply of fuel to the engines is the most critical element of the fuel system.
● Fuel is collected in the central fuselage tank before being fed into the engine feed lines
Fuel Transfer
Refueling
● Aircraft is fueled by means of a refueling receptacle that connects to the refueling tanker
● From receptacle it enters a refueling gallery, which distributes incoming fuel to the
different aircraft tanks.
● The control of fuel entry is managed by valves that are under the control of the fuel
management system.
● Mostly aircraft is not filled to capacity, rather the maintenance crew select a fuel load and
set the appropriate levels at the refuel/defuel panel (located under wing)
● Almost the reverse of refueling
● It may be necessary to defuel the aircraft for maintenance reasons
● In general defueling is carried out less compared to refueling
● When it is performed the fuel in the tanks must be completely emptied out and the tank
volume purged with air to make the tank space safe to operate in. , i.e. to reduce the risk
of an explosive atmosphere
Fuel storage tanks
Aircraft fuel storage importance
● Amount of fuel carried
● Fuel weight effects on aircraft structure
● Location of fuel tank for balance of aircraft
● Aircraft typically use three types of fuel tanks:
○ Integral
■ Areas inside the aircraft structure that have been sealed to allow fuel
storage.
■ An example: "wet wing" commonly used in larger aircraft.
■ These tanks are part of the aircraft structure and cannot be removed for
service or inspection or replacement
○ Rigid removable
■ Installed in a compartment designed to accommodate the tank.
■ They are typically of metal construction, and may be removed for
inspection, or repair etc
■ The aircraft does not rely on the tank for structural integrity. These tanks
are commonly found in smaller aircraft, such as the Cessna 172
 ○ Bladder
■ Reinforced rubberized bags
■ Installed in a section of aircraft structure designed to accommodate the
weight of the fuel.
■ One major downside to this type of tank is the tendency for materials to
harden through extensive use making them brittle → causing cracks.
■ Plus side: ability to use as much of the aircraft as possible to store fuel.

Fuel Quantity Indication

● All aircraft fuel systems have some form of fuel quantity indicator.
● Some aircraft use resistance type float valves to calculate the fuel quantity.
● Some aircraft have devices called capacitive level indicators
● The capacitors are mounted inside the fuel tanks and are connected to an indicator in
the cockpit.
● The level of fuel can be deduced from the refueling tanker and cross-checked with the
level indicated by the aircraft fuel gauges.
● high-performance aircrafts use electronic fuel quantity systems. These more costly
systems have the advantage of having no moving parts
● high-performance aircraft typically utilize electronic fuel quantity systems. These more
costly systems have the advantage of having no moving parts

Fuel Venting
● Each fuel tank must be vented from the top to atmosphere to match the ambient
pressure
● Vent outlets must be located in a manner that minimizes the possibility of being
obstructed by foreign matters
● The airspaces of tanks must be interconnected so that inner tanks also maintain the
pressure.

External fuel tanks (aka drop tanks)

● Used to describe fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft . A drop tank is expendable and
often jettison-able. External tanks are commonplace on modern military planes
● Disadvantage
○ is is that they impose a drag penalty on the aircraft
○ increase the moment of inertia, thereby reducing roll rates for air maneuvers
○ fuel in the drop tanks is consumed first, and only when all fuel has been used, the
fuel selector is switched to the airplane's internal tank
○ ConformalFuelTanks’s produce less drag and does not take up external hard
points;
Fuel dumping / jettison
● procedure used in emergency situations before a return to the airport
● Done to reduce the aircraft's weight .

Air to Air Refueling

 ● Development of in-flight refueling techniques has extended the range of military aircraft
and enhanced the flexibility of air power leading to a ‘force-multiplier’ in conflicts
● To eliminate the fuel limitation problem, a system for mid-air refueling
● There are two refueling systems in use
○ Probe-and-Drogue
○ Flyable boom

PNEUMATIC SYSTEM

What is an Aircraft Pneumatic System?

● Pneumatic power is the use of medium pressure air to perform certain functions within
the aircraft.
● availability of high-pressure air from the modern engines is the key to the use of
pneumatic power
● Its a means of transferring energy / providing power on the aircraft
● Bleed air (high temp, high pressure) is extracted from the engine compressor and after
cooling and pressure reduction, it is sent to different aircraft systems (i,e, Air conditioning
de icing, etc)

Functions of Pneumatic Power

Pneumatic power is used for a variety of functions such as:
● Cabin pressurization system
● Engine anti-icing and Wing anti-icing
● Pressurizing hydraulic reservoirs
● Pressurizing fuel cells
● Wind-screen defogging
● Flight instrumentation
● Thrust Reverser

By Pass Air
● Modern engines ‘bypass’ a portion of the mass of air, past the engine
● Only a small portion of the mass flow passes through the engine core.
● The ratio of bypass air to engine core air is called the Bypass Ratio and this can easily
exceed 10:1 for latest civil airliners’ engines (much higher than the 4:1 or 5:1 ratio for the
previous generation.)

Auxiliary Power Unit

● (APU) is also a source of high-pressure bleed air.
● It is in itself a small turbojet engine, designed more as power generator than a thrust
provider.
● The APU is primarily designed to provide electrical and pneumatic power.
● Able to provide an independent source of electrical power and compressed air while the
aircraft is on the ground, (can be used as a backup provider of power while airborne)
 SPACE ENVIRONMENT

Earth's atmosphere
● Atmosphere that surrounds Earth protects us from the hostile environment such as
space radiations and unbearable temperatures
● Ist is mainly composed of:
○ Nitrogen,78%.
○ Oxygen, 21%.
○ Argon,1%.
○ Carbon dioxide/water vapor, 0.03%

The atmosphere itself is divided into five parts

● Troposphere
● Stratosphere
● Mesosphere
● Thermosphere
● Exosphere.
The thickness of these parts is determined by temperature gradients.

High Altitude Aircrafts

Advantages
● Less radar detectability
● Out of range for anti-air weapons
● No air to air engagement
● Air supremacy
Disadvantages
● Harsh environment
● Sophisticated design
● Prone to failures
● Use of rocket engines (very low fuel efficiency)

Hypersonic Space Vehicles

● The North American X-15 was a hypersonic rocket - powered aircraft
● The X -15 set speed and altitude records in the 1960s, reaching the edge of outer space
and returning with valuable data used in aircraft and spacecraft design
● The X -15's official world record for the highest speed ever recorded by a crewed,
powered aircraft, was set in October 1967 when William J. Knight flew at Mach 6.70 at
31km ) , a speed of 4,520 miles/hour

● SR 71 Bomber → during aerial reconnaissance missions, SR-71 operated at high

speeds and altitudes (Mach 3.2) to allow it to outrace threats.
● If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the evasive action was simply to
accelerate and outfly the missile
MICROGRAVITY
● Feeling of “weightlessness” while in orbit, is the effect of microgravity.
● Microgravity can be simulated either by”
○ placing an object in an environment where the force of gravity is naturally small
(i.e., between two gravitationally equal massive bodies)
○ or by placing an object in free fall, such as in low Earth orbit (LEO).
● Astronauts on the Space Shuttle do not experience a zero gravity (0G) environment
● Rather, in a low Earth orbit, they experience a radial gravity effect that is only one-tenth
less than the standard 9.8 m/s2 (1G) environment.
● While orbiting Earth, the spacecraft and astronauts experience a constant state of free
fall
● Thus,they are considered to be in a microgravity environment
● (Centripetal acceleration of the spacecraft is responsible for the resulting microgravity
environment.)
● Microgravity environment is one in which the gravitational acceleration force is 1x10-6 Gs
less than that on Earth—nearly, but not quite, weightless

TURKISH AEROSPACE

What do aerospace engineers do

● Designing, Developing, Manufacturing, Testing and Operating aircraft, spacecraft,
satellites, missiles and other equipment and systems necessary for flight vehicles
What are AERO-STRUCTURES?
● All necessary components required to build an airplane, such as flight control surfaces,
fuselage, wings, nose, empennage, internal frames, floor beams and others.
● Aerostructures are designed to carry and withstand all static and dynamic loads during
flight.
● Composite materials are highly preferred to manufacture aerostructures of airplanes due
to their high specific strength, high specific stiffness, fatigue tolerance, toughness,
thermal stability, durability, reliability, in-field repair-ability properties.
● Use of these materials results in lightweight structures which ultimately result in robust
products with low maintenance costs.
● Cost optimization is the goal
○ Companies are therefore investing in
■ Advanced Structural Materials
■ Advanced Manufacturing Processes
■ Additive Manufacturing Technologies
■ Simulations and Analytics Technologies

What are Composite materials

● A material made from two or more constituent materials with different physical/chemical
properties that, when combined, produce a material with characteristics different from
the individual components.
 ● The individual components remain separate and distinct within the finished structure.
● The new material may be preferred for many reasons
○ stronger, lighter, or less expensive when compared to traditional materials.
○ Weight reduction up to 20 to 50%
○ Design flexibility
○ easy to assemble.
○ Longer standard maintenance cycles
○ I.e. Specific Strength and Stiffness of Carbon/Epoxy is 3-5 times higher than
Steel

Composites consist of:

● Matrix
○ Glue that holds composite together
○ Material into which smth else is embedded
● Reinforcement
○ Provides strength to composite to “reinforce” it so it won't fall apart
○ They are fibers

Use of composites:
● Old mud houses in rural areas
● Wood
● Bamboo
● Plywood
● Steel reinforced concrete
● Teeth filling
● Skateboards
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