400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760 SAE TECHNICAL PAPER SERIES 2001-01-2902 Factors Affecting Fuel System Certification Against Lightning Hazards G. A. M. Odam GAO Consultancy UK J. R. Tilston QinetiQ (formerly DERA) Pyestock UK C. C. R. Jones BAe Systems UK Reprinted From: Proceedings of the 2001 Aerospace Congress on CD-ROM (ACE2001CD) International Conference on Ligh tning and Static Electricity 2001 Aerospace Congress Seattle, Washington September 10-14, 2001Downloaded from SAE International by University of British Columbia, Wednesday, August 01, 2018The appearance of this I SSN code at the bottom of this page indicates SAE’s co nsent that copies of the paper may be made for personal or internal use of spec ific clients. This consent is given on the condition, however, that the copier pay a per article copy fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. Operations Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying such as copying forgeneral distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works, or forresale. Quantity reprint rates can be obtained from the Customer Sales and Satisfaction Department.To request permission to reprint a technical paper or permission to use copyrighted SAE publications in other works, contact the SAE Publications Group. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, in an electronic retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior wr itten permission of the publisher. ISSN 0148-7191 Copyright 2001 Positions and opinions advanced in this paper are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of SAE. The author is solelyresponsible for the content of the paper. A process is available by whic h discussions will be printed with the paper if it is p ublished in SAE Transactions. For permission to publish this paper in full or in part, contact the SAE Publications Group. Persons wishing to submit papers to be c onsidered for presentation or publication thr ough SAE should send the manuscript or a 3 00 word abstract of a proposed manuscript to: Secretary, Engineering Meetings Board, SAE. Printed in USAAll SAE papers, standards, and selected books are abstracted and indexed in theGlobal Mobility Database © British Crown Copyright 2001/MOD/DERA Published with the permission of the Controller of Her Britannic Majesty's Stationery Office. Downloaded from SAE International by University of British Columbia, Wednesday, August 01, 20182001-01-2902 Factors Affecting Fuel System Certification Against Lightning Hazards G. A. M. Odam GAO Consultancy UK J. R. Tilston QinetiQ (formerly DERA) Pyestock UK C. C. R. Jones BAe Systems UK © British Crown Copyright 2001/MOD/DERA Published with the permission of the Controller of Her Britannic Majesty's Stationery Office. ABSTRACT The certification of fuel systems is an important aspect of the overall certification of an airc raft against lightning hazards and embraces almost all disciplin es needed to deal with the lightning interaction. Both direct and indirect effects are encountered and some understanding of the physics of fuel combustion and probability theory concerning ignition is also necessary to appreciate the fact ors influencing the safety or otherwise of a design. At one time the Western Air Forces were losing one aircraft every other year, due to lightning related fuel explosions. Si milar accidents occur to Civilian aircraft, albeit less frequently. Af ter a brief review of aircraft fuels and their flammability and some discussion of combustion processes, the paper considers factors affecting Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE) encountered during flight profiles, such as oxygen enrichment, temperature and pressure. The paper also reviews possible ignition sources, such as hotspots,