Study on the Ignition Mechanism of Inert Fuel Tank Subjected to High-Velocity Impact of Fragments

Abstract

Nowadays, aircraft fuel tanks are protected by measures such as inerting, fire and explosion suppression, which significantly improve their ability to mitigate mechanical damage and prevent fire in the case of an accidental attack. In this study, an equivalent inert fuel tank with fire and explosion suppression was designed according to the vulnerabilities of a typical fighter. Then, a ballistic gun, a 37 mm gun and a two-stage light-gas gun were used to propel different fragments in tank damage experiments at different speeds (1400 m/s–2600 m/s). Experimental results show that the disassembly of a fuel tank is a prerequisite for igniting fuel. When the fragments hit the gas phase of the tank, the fuel tank was not disassembled and the fuel was not ignited. The calculation results show that the internal oxygen concentration was always lower than the limiting oxygen concentration (12%) before the fuel tank was disassembled. In addition, the minimum ignition speeds of inerted fragments with different masses as predicted by the ignition criterion when hitting the liquid fuel are consistent with the test results. This shows that increasing the mass of inert fragments will increase the minimum ignition speed and reduce the probability of ignition of the fuel. However, the implosion effect of the energetic fragments released about 3 times the chemical energy of its own kinetic energy, and the high-temperature and high-pressure products were very beneficial to the disintegration and ignition of the fuel tank compared to inert fragments.