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Re: Europa-List: Fuel fires

Subject: Re: Europa-List: Fuel fires
From: david joyce <davidjoyce@beeb.net>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 10:57:06

Sounds like a good idea to me if you can find a good way of fixing it.
Presumably it's working like the wire mesh on a Davey miner's lamp - by
conducting sufficient heat away to stop a flame getting through the mesh
with sufficient temperatrure to propagate the other side, regardless of
mixture ratio ( which might well be generally high inside the can, but would
locally be lower when the can gulps air to replace the poured fuel) David
Joyce
----- Original Message -----
From: <n3eu@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Europa-List: Fuel fires


>
> > There have been several discussion about the possibility of static
discharge
> > causing a fire while refueling.
> > Many years ago I recall seeing a film on solvent safety cans.  In the
film
> > the speaker was lighting a fire at the spout of solvent cans while
inside
> > a hanger at Idewild Airport. For you younger guys this is now JFK.  He
was
> > able to do this because the spouts on the cans had a wire mesh inside
the
> > spout. I am wondering if this would be a viable precaution to take with
our
> > Europas
> > Any thoughts or experience.
> >
> > John, A230
>
> Fuel is nonconductive, so I can't see what it has to do with static.  But
the
> mesh can aerate the fuel which then creates static inside the tank.  An
FAA
> directive on fuel systems discusses aeration and big airplanes planes
whose
> pressure-fueling plumbing systems may not be fully conductive.
>
> The flame won't ignite the fuel vapor if the mixture ratio is out of a
> specific range, not that the above stunt was just a parlor trick, but how
the
> mesh can safely alter the ratio isn't intuitive.  Given the product
liability
> situation in the U.S., if 10-cents worth of mesh did anything to prevent
one
> $10-million judgment for a badly disfiguring, personal injury, you'd think
all
> gas cans would be like that.
>
> Regards,
> Fred F.
>
>




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