Experimental investigation of level indicator errors caused by turbulence in vehicle fuel tanks

Abstract

According to the studies and customer feedback, the measurement results of the level sensors are reflected on the indicators approximately correctly. However, instantaneous erroneous measurements might occur in special cases (i.e. hill downhill, rough terrain, vehicle acceleration, and deceleration). Existing fuel level measurement sensors are affected much by external factors because of their design (random vibration, sudden acceleration, vacuum because of sudden suction, etc.). Any unsteadiness that may occur in the fuel tank and the sensitivity of the fuel level measurement accordingly are investigated in this thesis study. Protected and unprotected fuel level sensors were tested under the same conditions by placing 25 L, 50 L, 75 L, and 90 L of liquid in the tank. Different unsteadiness speeds were applied to each volume to achieve the same unsteadiness effect. It has been observed that the changes between the maximum and minimum output resistance Decelerate from 30% levels to 2% for the unprotected type. As the speed increased from 10 rpm to 25 rpm, this difference became even more pronounced. In this way, it is affected less by the unsteadiness effect and the level measurement is made more sensitively.