BA038
BA038
Milt, I do not know the answer to your question, but the following may be of help.
The final delivery path of fuel to a gas generator is designed to be more than capable of overcoming pressure variations in the burner. The only way (that I know of) that the final delivery can be compromised is by a defect or number of defects further up (or is it down) the line. According to the AAIB preliminary report everything between the tanks and the gas generators have been individually tested and pass muster, although cavitation damage on the impellors was noted. This might suggest a restriction in fuel flow, since pumps are carefully designed not to cavitate in the normal and extreme operating parameters that can reasonably be expected.
Hence the suggestion in my only other post (28 Feb #500) that it might be useful to run a computational fluid dynamics programme (CFD) to see where the problem might lie, which may be valuable in any subsequent physical simulation. A CFD programme may not however be able take account adequately of the effect of high frequency sound, and there is a lot of that about. High frequency sound (including structure-borne resonance) can cause disturbance in fluids, including cavitation, which may not be evident after the event, except when the entrained disturbed fluid meets a pump and leaves its mark.
Is this the area in which the AAIB should be looking? Maybe. Why hasn’t it occurred before in identical aircraft? Probably because of the infinite number of temperature/pressure/sound frequency/fuel velocity combinations.
As an aside, the incident happened about 15 minutes before I was due to land (as a passenger) but I only spent another 45 minutes aloft. Very inconsiderate all the same.
rgds