Effects of Ice Accretion in an Aircraft Protective Mesh Strainer of a Fuel Pump

This paper focuses on the investigation of the nature, process and effects of ice accretion on different feed pump strainers upstream of the aircraft feeding system. A suitable test rig was designed to circulate Jet A-1 containing water/ice contaminants at cold temperatures through the strainers. Following an extensive literature review, a number of screening tests were performed. These provided a strong base for an exhaustive study of fuel icing in the dynamic environment offered by the test rig. The effects of the rate of fuel cooling on the nature of ice were examined. As expected, it was observed that the yield of ice generated on the mesh screen increased with the water concentration in the fuel. It was also revealed that at higher cooling rates, a crust of snow formed on top of softer ice on the mesh screen. This phenomenon induced a slight drop in pressure across the mesh screen, indicating that the permeability of the crust layer is lower, but still allowed the passage of fuel through its structure. Comparing the particulate contamination experiments with the first set of results of uncontaminated fuel, it was observed that when there are foreign particles suspended in jet fuel, there is a higher yield of ice generated and accreted on the pump strainer