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So there is a gas station near my place that was on fire. I asked one of the workers after this incident about the cause of fire and it appeared something was not right with grounding. Does anyone know the reason why people ground the body of a gas truck while filling a tank ? enter image description here

Also this happen when electricians work on transmission lines .

f321
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    My take: fast moving fluid will lead to charge buildup. Charge buildup leads to increase in potential. High potential leads to sparks. – Sredni Vashtar Feb 21 '20 at 18:30
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    If you run a balloon on your jumper it builds up static electricity and placed near to the hair on someone's head you see the air attracted to it. Similarly pumping fuel into or out of a fuel tanker can generate static electricity which could cause a spark. Grounding the fuel tank prevents static build up. – Warren Hill Feb 21 '20 at 18:42
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about design. – Warren Hill Feb 21 '20 at 18:45
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    And obviously sparks are really really bad in fuel tanks so they try to make sure they don't happen. – user253751 Feb 21 '20 at 18:47
  • Just google it to get many videos. – Andy aka Feb 21 '20 at 18:55
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    @WarrenHill the question is about the reason fuel pumps are designed that way. It is definitely electrical engineering material. – Sredni Vashtar Feb 21 '20 at 18:55
  • @SredniVashtar it’s about fluid movement so perhaps the engineering stack?? – Solar Mike Feb 21 '20 at 19:16
  • this question proably belongs in Physics.stackexchange.com – Jasen Слава Україні Feb 21 '20 at 20:42
  • well, it took me 3 minutes to decide that that picture was CGI. not not just a very clean truck at a very clean gas station near midday, near the equator. – Jasen Слава Україні Feb 21 '20 at 20:48
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    @SolarMike, no, it's about charge buildup. How much charge can be dangerous and how to safely get rid of it is an electrical engineer's task. Would you post lightning protection questions on the wheather channel? Or solar cells questions on astronomy SE? – Sredni Vashtar Feb 21 '20 at 20:49
  • @SredniVashtar a weather channel you mean? So can you explain viscosity to me as part of fluid flow along with boundary layer? As you yhink fluid flow is electrical... – Solar Mike Feb 21 '20 at 20:57
  • @SolarMike The reason I no longer post full-fledged answers on this is exactly this: I could answer, but it's not worth it, because it takes but a handful of people ignorant enough to deem a question too difficult to answer. So, by the time I gather all the material, a perfectly valid question - that could have taught you a thing or two - has already been closed. Keep answering questions about what resistor is needed to light this or that LED... – Sredni Vashtar Feb 21 '20 at 21:05
  • @SredniVashtar if you know about IER then you would have posted an answer directly... – Solar Mike Feb 21 '20 at 21:21
  • As I wrote above, I stopped posting answers on this site (two years ago). For this very reason, and I see that nothing has changed since then: the closing folks do not read. Oh, BTW: go close this question as well: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/482480/size-of-glass-on-incandescent-bulb . After all, it's not about electronic design. – Sredni Vashtar Feb 21 '20 at 21:47
  • @SredniVashtar Don't let it get you down ! :-) :-(. Look at the resistance I get to answering real EE questions, and my answering history. One method is to post a short answer and then update it. This tends to get you down or few votes for the sshort answer but, if the object is to help people and not to garner fame and glory then this matters less. Admin tend not to like this method for whatever reason (it's moot), so use with discretion. A method used by one admin is to post a partial answer then "delete" it , then update it and undelete it latterly. – Russell McMahon Feb 21 '20 at 22:09
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    @f321 - "static electricity" builds up on the tanker body - whether from friction processes during transport or fluid flow in hose or whatever. The vehicle has a large capacitance relative to ground and the energy in the static charge can easily be enough to ignite fuel vapours if it discharges as a spark. Grounding via a lead with suitable resistance discharges the stored charge without sparking and then keeps the vehicle body at ground potential. – Russell McMahon Feb 21 '20 at 22:11
  • @RussellMcMahon Oh, I certainly am not here to earn points. But I am definitely not wasting my time crafting an answer knowing that a bunch of ignoramus would close it within minutes because they have no idea how to answer it, nor how it relates to electric engineering (hence it has to be off topic!). These people are just enforcing mediocrity and I am certainly not willing to jump through hoops to go around a basically flawed system. All I am willing to do is to point at the moon, and laugh when they look at the finger. :-) – Sredni Vashtar Feb 23 '20 at 13:57
  • @SredniVashtar I choose to tilt at windmills. Make that " ... feel compelled ...". I hope to encourage seekers and provide information, while always also seeking to (try to) help people with poorly put questions to improve them. People with English as a 2nd or 3rd or ... language have an extra obstacle here - often in the face of people who think they speak English but really only speak some variant of Amerricun (or selective English in a few notable cases). [[I am most certainly NOT against the US in any way. I do hope to be equal-opportunity as regards beating up newcomers]. – Russell McMahon Feb 23 '20 at 20:57

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