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Old 24th May 2008, 10:54
  #1214 (permalink)  
TheShadow
 
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Think Viscosity, think flow restrictions

The theory I prefer for BA038 is related to the long-term cold-soak.

Forget the fuel having "frozen". Think moreso the cavitation damage to the fuel-pumps (and their restricted throughput/fuel starvation) having been caused by the treacle-like consistency of the fuel brought about by waxing (which occurs a lot earlier than the fuel's freezing point).

Haven't seen any arguments to the contrary, although there has been much reference to waxing. You have to extrapolate the waxing consequence to flows and that being related to the effect upon viscosity of a preponderance of wax globules in the fuel.

Paraffinization of oil has always been a problem for oil-pumping from great depths for ocean oil-rigs. It's likely to be little different for any oil-based fuel. Low temperature hydrocarbon metamorphosis in the presence of various catalysts (such as fuel additives and water) is a whole branch of organic chemistry.
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