What the volcanic ash is doing to aeroplanes
Again its happened, the Icelandic volcano has erupted and caused another ash cloud, and airlines are getting quite freaked out by it. Not as much as last time though!
“They are made of sharp rock fragments that will easily erode plastic, metal and even glass pieces.”
“Volcanic ash contains particles, whose melting point is below engine internal temperature.
“In-flight, these particles will immediately melt if they go through an engine. Going through a turbine, the materials are rapidly cooled down, stick on the turbine vanes, and disturb the flow of high pressure combustion gases.”
“Ash deposits easily absorbs into water and can cause arcing, short circuits and intermittent failure of electronic components.”
As a knock on affect of this the manual outlined how, “Dense ash deposit can clog bleed system filters and may lead to total bleed loss, with associated loss of cabin pressurisation.”
