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Super simple, super stupid question about Fuel Ducts


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So I don't know if I'm retarded or something but I'm having a huge problem getting the fuel ducts to work. Below is a screen shot of a simple way I'm trying to set it up but the fuel will not flow from the top tanks from the button rocket tanks. Am I missing some crucial piece of information on fuel ducts?

U4r0K9p.jpg

Edited by peanutmanak47
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Welcome to the forums!

First of all, fuel lines wouldn't help at all in this case, because those are solid fuelled rockets which use solid fuel instead of liquid fuel and oxidizer, which is what is stored in the fuel tanks. However, if you were using a liquid fuelled rocket engine such as the LVT-30 or Rockomax Mainsail, then it would use the fuel in the fuel tanks.

Second, solid fuel doesn't flow through fuel pipes. Only liquids (like liquid fuel and oxidizer) do.

I'm a little curious: what was the purpose of those pipes? If you put the right kind of engine on below it then it would flow down to it anyway.

Good luck and fly safe!

Edited by Lazro
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To clarify, if you attach liquid fuel tanks end to end then the fuel flows automatically. You would use fuel lines when you attach tanks side by side. Google "asparagus staging". That technique is very useful. One last note about fuel lines is that they only work one way. When you put a fuel line on you have to click the tank you want fuel to flow from first and then click the tank you want it to go to.

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Welcome to the forums!

First of all, fuel lines wouldn't help at all in this case, because those are solid fuelled rockets which use solid fuel instead of liquid fuel and oxidizer, which is what is stored in the fuel tanks. However, if you were using a liquid fuelled rocket engine such as the LVT-30 or Rockomax Mainsail, then it would use the fuel in the fuel tanks.

Second, solid fuel doesn't flow through fuel pipes. Only liquids (like liquid fuel and oxidizer) do.

I'm a little curious: what was the purpose of those pipes? If you put the right kind of engine on below it then it would flow down to it anyway.

Good luck and fly safe!

Well then I guess that would solve the problem of why it wasn't working. Knew it was something stupid.

That was just a setup I did for the picture to illustrate my issues I was having. Didn't even realize they were using two different types of fuel.

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There are 7 types of propellant in the stock game, obeying 3 different sets of rules:

* Solid fuel

Cannot be transfered/does not "flow". As such there are no separate "tanks" and "engines", just combined units. A unit can only use fuel it stores itself.

These rockets cannot be shut down, they cannot be throttled, and they cannot be refueled.

these are all the solid fuel boosters, which includes the launch escape system and the sepratrons.

The game files say:

flowMode = NO_FLOW

transfer = NONE

* Unlimited flow: Monopropellant, Xenon Gas, intake Air (also electricity, but that is massless)

No fuel lines are needed, if its stored anywhere on the craft, it can be used. Recently there was a change so that monoprop and xenon drains from sources according to their staging priority, instead of evenly from all sources (although I'm not sure intake air obeys this rule)

Monoprop: RCS blocks and ports, the O-10 engine

Xenon gas: the ion engine, also consumes electricity

Intake air: the jet engines, these also use Liquid fuel, which obeys a different flow rule. Intake air can be stored if the intakes are shut (you can shut intakes, which will all be partially full, transfer everything to 1 intake, open all except that 1, transfer everything again, and so on, even then, you won't have much stored for use in orbit)

The game files say:

flowMode = STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW or ALL_VESSEL

transfer = PUMP

* Liquid fuels: Liquid fuel (duh) and "oxidizer"

Most of the engines use Liquid fuel and oxidizer in a 0.9:1.1 ratio

The airbreathing engines use liquid fuel and intake air in a 1:15 ratio

The LV-N, even though it should not use oxidizer for realism purposes, uses oxidizer in the same ratio for gameplay purposes so that they don't have to add new fuel tank types

These flow freely within a stack, assuming you don't have a part in there that interrupts the flow, like decouplers

These fuels can be manually transfered.

The "top" of a stack drains first.

Fuel lines can be set up to automatically transfer/drain fuel to/from the parts of your choosing.

The game files say:

flowMode = STACK_PRIORITY_SEARCH

transfer = PUMP

Anyway, your fuel lines don't work because you're trying to move liquid fuel to an engine that uses solid fuel.

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Your fuel lines might have worked right, if that had pumpable fuel.

Pumping the solid fuel in an SRB is a bit hard though :)

For liquid fuel flow in complex systems, Kasuha's guide/analysis (the post above links to it) is indispensable.

(no idea how he figured it all out that way, but it works)

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