Dear friends and followers, welcome back to my channel and greetings from the Airbus A320 simulator
at the TSE flight Training Centre here in Essen Germany.
This is another basic introduction video of the Airbus A320 hydraulic systems.
So let's get started !
The A320 Hydraulic system consists of three independent
Continuously operating systems and marked with colors Green, Blue and Yellow. Each system has its own
Hydraulic fluid reservoir and an accumulator, but fluids can't be transferred from one system to another and
The normal system operating pressure for each system is a 3000 PSI
Which is at about 200 bars compared to your car tire pressure which is at 2 to 3 bars
To provide this kind of pressure, each Hydraulic system has its own pump. The green and the yellow
System have their own engine driven pump plus the yellow system has an electrical driven backup pump.
The blue system only has an electrical driven pump for normal operation and for emergency cases,
a secondary pump driven by a ram air turbine.
I'll get back to that later
All the pumps can be selected ON or AUTO or
Intentionally off with the respective hydraulic push buttons on the overhead panel so in normal operating
Configuration there are no light illuminated on the hydraulic panel
so if all systems are operating normal the Ecam hydraulic page would look like this. At the bottom you have the
reservoir level and the Fire shutoff valve. A green in line
Indicates that the associated push-button switch for the pump is on and hydraulic pressure is normal.
An amber cross-line would indicate blue elect pump is off and Amber low
Indicates the pump is on but the hydraulic pressure is low
and if there were to be a failure the Ecam hydraulic page would automatically be displayed with any hydraulic system fold or
By pressing the hydraulic push-button switch on the Ecam control panel now. Let's look at some important
components for which each hydraulic system is responsible for
For example the Green hydraulic system takes care of the landing gear retraction,
moves the slats and the flaps, open the reverser doors of engine one
provides pressure for the normal braking system and much more
The blue system drives the slack and most of the flight controls and besides that,
in case of a total electrical power loss the Ram Air Turbine deploys
pressuring the hydraulic system and driving an emergency generator for electricity
The Yellow system drives the flaps
provides pressure for the alternate braking system and reverser doors of Engine 2 but most importantly all
three system provide pressure for the flight control actuators the rudder the stabilizer and elevators
slats, flaps and ailerons
Meaning if one system would totally fail there are two more hydraulic systems for backup, making the system very
reliable and redundant
and besides that the hydraulic system green and yellow can pressure each other with the PTU
the Power Transfer Unit. Let's say we would have just
experienced an engine failure on one engine and a hydraulic pressure on the green system would immediately
Collapse because the engine driven pump has stopped running
Within seconds the PTU automatically kicks in and provides the pressure of 3000 PSI
So imagine the PTU as a pump which in our case gets driven by the yellow system pressuring the green system
So although we've just had an engine failure all hydraulic system works as it in normal operation
Okay, new scenario: all engines running again
Now let's say the green hydraulic reservoir is leaking and the Ecam would give a warning stating:
"Hydraulic Green Reservoir low level" and following the Ecam orders we have to turn off the PTU and engine 1 pump
Meaning: due to the leakage there isn't enough fluid in the system to provide adequate pressure and
therefore we have to shut down the PTU and
engine driven pump and accept the entire green hydraulic system is lost.
Due to the loss, the Ecam will show the independent and primary failures as
"Hydraulic green reservoir low level" and "Green system low pressure"
the right side of the Ecam shows the secondary failures by controls and will page as
They have components which are affected by the loss of the green system
So let's look at the respective pages and see what is inoperative and what was taken over by the other
Hydraulic systems, so the nosewheel steering is inoperative
Resulting that after landing we would need a tow truck to get us from the runway
The Auto Brake and the normal braking aren't working either
So we would have to use the backup alternate braking of the yellow system
So let's look at the flight control page the spoilers 1 & 5 on each side are inoperative
Not too bad because we still have the blue and yellow system backing up the rest of the flight control
Okay, now let's go through the status pay cuz of the green hydraulic system laws
We have to apply the landing gear gravity extension checklist and once the gear is out
It won't be retractable again in case of a go-around as mentioned in the inoperative system
Second, we have to apply the landing distance procedure calculations
Due to the fact that the parts of the spoilers won't deploy on touchdown,
the reversal one won't open and the auto and normal braking system is also inoperative
After reading and understanding the failures from the status page you call out "Ecam actions Completed"
and get out the respective checklist for upcoming procedures
But as you can see: any hydraulic system loss comes with a few setbacks
But the other systems will ensure the necessary redundancy
I hope you enjoyed this basic introduction video of the A320 hydraulic system.
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Make sure to check out their website for more details about their flight school and training programs
See you next week ! All the best your Captain Joe !
you