10.2514/6.2025-1607">
 

Fuel Tank Shallow Jet Spurt Characterization and Modeling Using Natural Frequency

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-6-2025

Abstract

Aircraft vulnerability reduction efforts aim to increase an aircraft’s ability to withstand damage resulting from the man-made hostile environment. One vulnerability scenario deals with the effects of a round or fragment that pierces a fuel tank wall. Shallow Jet Spurt (SJS) relates to fuel (or any liquid) pulsing out of a fuel tank after taking a direct hit from a ballistic projectile and/or fragment. Modeling and predicting the timing between initial impact and initial spurt is important to vulnerability reduction, as it is tied to initial ignition for fire prediction, modeling, and mitigation. This research seeks to discover a model that correlates SJS timing variables with the natural frequency and other material and structural properties of fuel tank walls. High-speed testing videos and datasets were used to determine a potential relationship between fuel tank structural properties and SJS timing. The initial approach for analysis was to control/standardize all variables to directly correlate this variable of interest with the SJS output. Additionally, a conversion factor was determined to account for liquid-panel interactions while keeping calculations simple. A generalized parabolic correlation between natural frequency and SJS timing was determined, where a larger natural frequency accelerates SJS timing until a critical point. Additional relationships between panel natural frequency, projectile kinetic energy, and SJS timing were also discovered. These relationships require key assumptions that ignore obliquity and first-strike effects, which may affect the exact calculations and require further research but in turn simplify calculations and provides the foundation for further discovery.

Comments

Conference Session: Spacecraft and Materials Survivability

This conference paper is available from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), through subscription or purchase using the DOI link below.

Source Publication

AIAA SCITECH 2025 Forum

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