dear friends and followers welcome back to my channel and greetings from the Airbus a 320 simulator at the
TFC flight training center here in Essen Germany. This is video number 3 out of 10
Airbus introduction videos and today, I'll be giving you a basic explanation of the Airbus A320 fuel system
So let's get started
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The A320 fuel system consists of the fuel tanks, controls the distribution of the fuel during refueling,
supplies fuel to the engines and apu
cools the oil for the integrated drive generator lubrication system
keeps fuel in the outer wing for wing bending and flutter relief and
supplies information on the Ecam and cockpit indication
Within the cockpit we have all the related fuel
switches on the overhead panel and the Ecam display showing the fuel panel after
pressing the fuel button on the Ecam control panel. Other than that the Ecam will
automatically display the fuel page in case of a system failure or warning.
Outside of the cockpit you can find a refueling panel on the lower part of the fuselage,
below the right-hand wing and the refueling coupling in the midsection on either side of the wings
The fuel is stored in three tanks: the left and right wing tank and the Center tank
The wing tanks are further divided into a inner tank and a outer tank. The total usable fuel capacity
is 23.858 liters or
6302 US gallons on the Airbus A320 model.
Okay, let's look at the Ecam fuel display. Starting at the bottom we have the FOB, the fuel on board
Moving up we have a scheme of the wing tanks, each showing the current fuel quantity and the fuel temperature
Except for the one in the center tank,
which isn't exposed as much to the outside air temperatures
compared to the wing tanks. Then you have the fuel pumps, the crossfeed valve and the fuel lines
Towards the engines
including the low pressure fuel valve.
Number one and two represent the engine one and two plus the fuel each engine has
used since engine starts and the sum of that. Now as you can see there is a barrier between the outer wing tank
and the inner wing tank. That's there for a specific reason, the fuel systems will primarily
empty or use the center tanks first
then the inner tanks and as soon as the inner tanks reach a fuel level of
750 kilograms,
a transfer valve will open, let in the outer wing tank fuel flow into the inner tank by gravity.
The reason therefore is to reduce wing bending and control wing flutter during flight.
Now, you can see that each side is isolated from each other, but if there were to be any
abnormality, like an engine failure for example, a fuel imbalance could create a further problem.
That's where the crossfeed valve comes to play. Normally the valve is closed, but setting it into the open position,
fuel then can be transferred from the heavier side to the lighter side using the fuel pumps accordingly.
There is a total of six identical fuel pumps: two in each in a wing tank and two in the center tank.
When the wing tank pumps are selected on, they operate continuously, providing necessary
pressure to the fuel line feeding the engines and are manually switched off after the engines are shut down and
reaching the parking position.
To make the system redundant, suction valves are installed in each wing tank.
So in case both fuel pumps fail in a wing tank the engines can use
suction pressure to extract the remaining fuel from the tank.
But there aren't any suction valves installed in the center tank.
Therefore in case both center tank pumps should fail, the remaining fuel is not available from the center tank
Also, the fuel is limited by temperature. The minimum temperature for jet A-1 fuel is
-43 °C and a maximum of +45 °C.
To counteract from fuel freezing up in cruise,
Airbus has installed a fuel-to-oil heat exchanger. During flight, the cold fuel cools
the hot oil of the integrated drive generator and at the same time the oil
warms up the fuel to prevent it from freezing. That's it for today
I hope you enjoyed the basic introduction video of the fuel system on the Airbus A320
Thank you very much for the support by TFC providing me with this great flight simulator and see you next week. All the best,
Your Captain Joe.
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