Design, Manufacturing and Calibration of Electrical Conductivity Apparatus for Liquid Fuels Using Submerging Method

Due to low electrical conductivity of liquid fuels, electrostatic accumulation is a problem in production, transportation and storage of the fuels. Electrostatic accumulation more than ambient ionization energy leads to electrical spark which causes firing and/or fuel tank explosion. Therefore, the electrical conductivity is a key parameter in fuels or flammable solvents. In this research, the apparatus cell for electrical conductivity measurement of liquids was firstly manufactured based on DIN51412-1 standard. Due to some problems in standard cell such as dependency of electrical conductivity on sample volume, chemical leakage, high volume consumption of sample, difficult cleaning of the cell and carrying problems because of size and weight, a new cell was designed based on submerging method and manufactured. The new cell performance was calibrated with various solvents like toluene, hexane and also JP-8 and tetralin as aviation fuels. Then, the conductivity of each solvent and fuel was measured and compared via the standard and new cells in the presence of antistatic Stadis 450. The measuring error was less than 0.5%.