Adam Aulick
May 19th 06, 11:20 PM
So, Jim Weir has posted some time ago in one of his columns, a design
and instructions for home-building a reliable fuel-level sensor which
uses capacitance and no moving parts to measure fuel quantity.
And many hombuilt aircraft use auto engines that don't mind (some) ethanol.
And auto fuel containing an awful lot of ethanol is likely to become
commonplace in the future, with some ethanol being all but unavoidable.
BUT both the dielectric constant and energy content of ethanol are
substantially different from that of gasoline. So if we are using
ethanol fuel, we want very much to know not only how much is in there,
by volume, but also how potent is the brew?
Assuming one had an engine and fuel system that didn't mind large
percentages of ethanol (presumably adapted from some future auto engine)
would there be any substantial difficulty involved in setting up an
in-tank capacitance system that measures ethanol percentage, and fuel
level, at the same time?
The system illustrated by Mr. Weir uses a capacitor formed between a
large plate and the (presumably aluminum) tank wall, with total
capactiance which varies depending on how much of the volume between the
plates is filled with fuel, and how much with air. What I have in mind
is to add to that a small plate at the bottom of the tank, presumably
always fully wet, to measure the dielectric constant of the fuel, and
automatic recalibration of the main fuel-level sensor depending on the
capacitance of the ethanol-percentage sensor.
I know this can work in principle, but what I don't know is what kind of
electronics are required to make it happen, and whether it can be done
on the same dead-simple scale as Mr. Weirs fuel sender, or would require
calibration to some nonlinear curve. (is the change in dielectric
contant as the fuel goes from all gas to all ethanol linear?)
Does anybody have any thoughts on this?
Does the mixture stay mixed, or does the ethanol try to float to the top?
Can we measure water in the ethanol, or does that just foul up the
sensing completely?
~Adam
and instructions for home-building a reliable fuel-level sensor which
uses capacitance and no moving parts to measure fuel quantity.
And many hombuilt aircraft use auto engines that don't mind (some) ethanol.
And auto fuel containing an awful lot of ethanol is likely to become
commonplace in the future, with some ethanol being all but unavoidable.
BUT both the dielectric constant and energy content of ethanol are
substantially different from that of gasoline. So if we are using
ethanol fuel, we want very much to know not only how much is in there,
by volume, but also how potent is the brew?
Assuming one had an engine and fuel system that didn't mind large
percentages of ethanol (presumably adapted from some future auto engine)
would there be any substantial difficulty involved in setting up an
in-tank capacitance system that measures ethanol percentage, and fuel
level, at the same time?
The system illustrated by Mr. Weir uses a capacitor formed between a
large plate and the (presumably aluminum) tank wall, with total
capactiance which varies depending on how much of the volume between the
plates is filled with fuel, and how much with air. What I have in mind
is to add to that a small plate at the bottom of the tank, presumably
always fully wet, to measure the dielectric constant of the fuel, and
automatic recalibration of the main fuel-level sensor depending on the
capacitance of the ethanol-percentage sensor.
I know this can work in principle, but what I don't know is what kind of
electronics are required to make it happen, and whether it can be done
on the same dead-simple scale as Mr. Weirs fuel sender, or would require
calibration to some nonlinear curve. (is the change in dielectric
contant as the fuel goes from all gas to all ethanol linear?)
Does anybody have any thoughts on this?
Does the mixture stay mixed, or does the ethanol try to float to the top?
Can we measure water in the ethanol, or does that just foul up the
sensing completely?
~Adam