If ever proof were needed as to the efficiency of this arrangement for
allowing a volatile fuel/air mixture through, while preventing the
propagation of a flame front, you need look no further than the "flame
traps" fitted in the inlet (intake) manifolds of the Rolls Royce
"Merlin" engine, between the supercharger and the head.
Made from layers of corrugated brass foil about an inch deep, these were
intended to prevent a backfire blowing the supercharger into the next
world. They worked very well, preventing the ignition of a perfect
stoiometric mixture at pressures up to 60" Hg.
Nigel
----- Original Message -----
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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