in order to detonate diesel you need to have oxygen, which inside of a fuel tank would not be possible, they only way that a fuel tank could “detonate” would be if the walls of the fuel tank failed and lead to a deflagracion inside of the crew compartment.
As you can see there was’t an explosion, just a deflagration due to the blow out fuel tank inspection panels that failed, in fact later in the case where the internal fuel tank was penetrated there was no fire
In any case diesel is a lot harder to ignite than gasoline, which doesn’t explode in game for… reasons even though it was a leading cause of German tank losses in WW2
If it’s filled with water………
That might help………
They aren’t.
That’s a big L
lol.
like… if a round penetrate the fuel tank, and oxygen went into the fuel tanks!!!
air will not go into the tank as fast and with the volume that it is needed… when the the tank fails what happens is that fuel is proyectad outside of the fuel tank, which makes it way more likely to combust as it is airboned and has a much larger surface area , that doesn’t happens inside of the fuel tank, again as it shows in the video there is no combustion in or after of the fuel internal fuel tank is penetrated, it happens on the external one because fuel is ejected though the ports of the tank.
this is 1 video
it is an official test…
1 video
Diesel can and has been detonated. British trials on T-34s found that their solid shots were able to do it, as long as the tank was partially depleted. Detonating a full tank required it to be punctured beforehand.
You guys are aware that DU-W alloys for example are pyrophoric, I’m not saying it would be sufficient to cause an explosion on its own but certainly would contribute, considering that fuel sloshing may atomize it sufficiently to start a reaction there is certainly the conditions for a reaction to occur.
Its interesting how some people can get an opinion on something and refuse to change it even when shown its wrong.
im not questioning that these rounds cant set fuel on fire, but that it is unlikely for them to be able to actually detonate a fuel tank when it is full, sure due to cavitation fuel will vaporize but those cavities collapse extremely fast but that by itself wont detonate, as diesel need oxygen, like @Wiggly_Armed_Man said a partially empty tank can detonate, as long as the round or some super-heated parts of the round reach the “empty” space of the tank, as there is a preexisten air-fuel mixture there. again Swedish trials clearly shows it.
@My_Name_Is_Bear has a complete misconception of it, though. According to science diesel can absolutely explode and has, many times. If the fuel tank is partially empty then it will and is where using fuel tanks as spaced armour can fail, especially when it’s near ammunition, and that’s exactly what the British tests on the T-34 were done for and also showed in their results. The percentage chance in-game of a fuel tank explosion is to simulate that chance, since the amount of fuel you take into ground battle can’t be set like it can in air battles.
Not “detonated”. Deflagration. Big difference. There is no shockwave. It burns like in the engine but the pressure builds up which bursts the walls of the tank. Then if there is enough residual heat and pressure to ignite the liberated fuel mixing with the air in the compartment is the ultimate IRL RNG.
The Soviets found the risk worth while for the benefit of being able to trap fragments (oh noes its a spall liner!!!). The engine oil tanks were also likely to suffer fire as well BTW.
In either case, it would still disable the tank. It might be more accurate to model it as the tank being “burned down,” instead, but there’s nothing wrong with a fuel tank causing a death in-game.
Fuel tanks besides being effective spall liners as well liquids being surprisingly effective at negating shaped charge jets, diesel fuel relatively inert nature was reason why some of the ammo stowage was INSIDE conforming fuel tanks like in T-72 between carousel and engine as wet stowage. Is it as good/safe as “proper” wet storage using water/glycol or more advanced mixes? No, but it was deemed “good enough”, just like anti radiation liner used since T-55A as standard issue in Russian tanks was deemed “good enough” spall liner to not add dedicated one.
Yeah this is why i’ve said that there are no Depleted Uranium rounds in warthunder.
