Here in South America, it’s not unusual to regularly cross mountain passes or travel through regions higher than the 4600m high Mont Blanc, the highest mountain of the Alps.

Most of the time, we only think about whether we or the vehicle’s engine can handle it.

When we stop we might notice that a shampoo has popped open or a food container has deformed because of the extra pressure. However, we rarely consider the effects such heights might have on other vehicle components, like our diesel tanks.

To visually demonstrate this, we captured the effect of the decreasing atmosphere pressure on a bag of chips. As we reached a height of 3900m the bag burst!

Luckily our tanks did not. But it’s not luck, it all comes down to engineering.

So many things that we take for granted in every day life, have gone through a long process of engineering and testing that we don’t know about. For us it’s not only interesting to find out about how things work, but knowing about these small but important differences helps us differentiate between products and ensure to choose the right one for our use.

 

So we asked the engineers of Padoan how the change of pressure is compensated in the tanks.

This is their answer:

„The diesel tank cap plays a very important role.

This cap, in addition to allowing refueling and deterring theft (thanks to the lockable closure), also has an important function related to pressure management.

The function of the diesel level sender (also called diesel level indicator) is both related to the suction of diesel fuel and to allowing the return of excess quantity from the vehicle’s power system. The cap’s task is to allow these flows not to generate issues to the overall operation by compensating with the exchange of air with the outside.

More specifically, diesel is taken in in larger quantities than the engine needs, and the unused excess returns to the tank.

This fluid, however, returns with a different, higher temperature than the diesel stored in the tank, and this causes a change in internal pressure that is compensated by the cap.

Although the tank has a so-called “anti-tip” feature, i.e., with closure of the filling port to prevent leakage, together with the cap it allows this pressure micro-compensation.

We are talking about minimal differences, but the sensitivity of the cap allows a substantially equal pressure to be maintained between the outside and inside of the tank.

Suffice it to say that the release, i.e. the compensation, already intervenes at 0.015Δp.

 As a tank specialist, Padoan pays attention to various details, combining technical performance and components that make everyday life easier.

In a few words: #TankItEasy“.

Andrea & Mike
www.4-xtremes.ch

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