I personally like this idea and I tried it for oil cooling. I used
the return fuel as you mentioned but the volume is not high enough. Got
2-3 degrees of oil cooling (installed a valve to enable/disable oil cooling so I
could measure accurately) and temp rise in the wet-wing tank was not even
measurable.
I am going to try this again but with a separate high volume pump.
FWIW, all hydraulic system cooling in jet airliners is done this way.
Tracy (hands sticky with two part foam from refurbishing ratty travel
trailer)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 12:46
AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Heating the
Fuel
In
anticipation of the new turbo, I am considering ways to improve coolant
cooling. Besides the obvious more air, more ducting, more radiator; I
have been again toying with the idea of a heat exchanger. This time
coolant to fuel. The plan would be to use a typical oil/water exchanger
but use fuel instead of oil. I would use the fuel on the way back to the
tank, and the coolant after it has already been cooled by the radiator.
The fuel would then go back to the nice metal tank of the
RV.
I am
looking for input on the implications of heating the fuel. I expect it
would reach max temps of about 190 (usually a little cooler) but
quickly cool once in the tank. Can the fuel tolerate that temp without
vaporizing? It will probably expand in the tank but I don't expect that
will occur faster than it is used up. I have no guess as to what temp
will become steady state for the fuel pumped out of the tank. My guess
is that it will not be much warmer than normal, but a slight increase in temp
may help with vaporization.
The
last question is how much will it cool the coolant. My hope is about 10
deg but I doubt it will be quite that much. I know others have
considered using the fuel to cool (Tracy) and I would appreciate your
thoughts.
Dave
Leonard