Cause of Fuel Leakage from the Inner Piston Packing of Afterburner Fuel Pump in an Aircraft J85-GE-21 Turbojet Engine

ABSTRACT：Most of military supersonic aircraft use an afterburner. It plays an important role in performing unusual duties for supersonic flight, takeoff, and combat situations. Recently, repetitive fuel leakage from the inner piston packing rubber of afterburner fuel pump in an aircraft J85-GE-21 turbojet engine has happened. These failures have only happened in one manufacturer’s parts of two manufacturers. Thus, the cause of these failures was investigated through the comparative analysis for both the failed and the unfailed with two different manufacturers using various analysis methods. The failure analysis was performed using analysis methods such as swelling or swelling ratio, total sulfur content, polymer identification, loading and surface area of carbon black, and hardness. Consequently, the main cause of this failure was identified to be insufficient loading of carbon black as a reinforcing agent, together with small surface area of carbon black and somewhat low sulfur content