On the Study of Thermal-Propulsive Systems for Regional Aircraft

Self Cite

The electrification of an aircraft’s propulsive system is identified as a potential solution towards a lower carbon footprint in the aviation industry. One of the effects of increased electrification is the generation of a large amount of waste heat that needs to be removed. As high-power systems must be cooled to avoid performance deterioration such as battery thermal runaway, a suitable thermal management system is required to regulate the temperature of the powertrain components. With this in mind, the main objective of this research is to identify promising heat transfer technologies to be integrated into a thermal management system (TMS) such that power, mass, and drag can be minimised for a parallel hybrid–electric regional aircraft in the context of the EU-funded FutPrInt50 project. Five different TMS architectures are modelled using the Matlab/Simulink environment based on thermodynamic principles, heat transfer fundamentals, and fluid flow equations. The systems are a combination of a closed-loop liquid cooling integrated with different heat dissipation components, namely ram air heat exchanger, skin heat exchanger, and fuel. Their cooling capacity and overall aircraft performance penalties under different flight conditions are estimated and compared to each other. Then, a parametric study is conducted, followed by a multi-objective optimisation analysis with the aim of minimising the TMS impact. As expected, none of the investigated architectures exhibit an ideal performance across the range of the studied metrics. The research revealed that, while planning the TMS for future hybrid–electric aircraft, alternative architectures will have to be developed and studied in light of the power requirements.

Section: Reference Aircraft and Missionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Reference Aircraft and Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on Thermal Management Systems for Hybrid–Electric Aircraft

Coutinho,

Afonso,

Souza

et al. 2023

Self Cite

“…Applying Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's law, an Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) can be written for each node, thus reducing the overall transient problem to a simpler linear ODE system. In nominal conditions, the overall heat transfer rate of the heat pipe (Q) can be described using Equation (1), where ∆T is the overall temperature difference between the heat source and the heat sink, and R tot is the idealized thermal resistance network, shown in Figure 1. The total resistance of the heat pipe R tot is a combination of series and parallel resistances.…”

Section: Development Of the Numerical Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is visible in many specific applications in the aerospace domain. For example, as far as subsonic aviation is concerned, the implementation of green and digital transitions is forcing the international community to develop new integrated thermal management solutions to deal with competing requirements, such as the presence of cryogenic fuels on board and the increased dissipated heat due to increased installed computational power [1][2][3][4][5]. Another example deals with the advancement of flight technology, where aircraft speeds transitioned from subsonic to transonic and now towards supersonic and hypersonic.…”

Section: Introduction 1thermal Management Challenges In the Aerospace...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of Heat Pipe Thermal Performance for Aerospace Cooling System Applications

Scigliano,

De Simone,

Fusaro

et al. 2024

The design of integrated and highly efficient solutions for thermal management is a key capability for different aerospace products, ranging from civil aircraft using hydrogen on board to miniaturized satellites. In particular, this paper discloses a novel numerical tool for the design and thermal performance assessment of heat pipes. To achieve this goal, a numerical Ansys Parametric Design Language code is set up to verify the effective subtractive heat flux guaranteed by the selected heat pipe arrangement. The methodology and related tool show their ability to provide good thermal performance estimates for different heat pipe designs and operating conditions. Specifically, the paper reports two very different test cases: (1) solid metal heat pipes to cool down the crotch leading-edge area of the air intake of a Mach 8 civil passenger aircraft, and (2) a copper-water heat pipe to cool down a Printed Circuit Board of a generic small LEO satellite. The successful application of the methodology and numerical code confirms the achievement of the ambitious goal of developing in-house tools to support heat pipe thermal performance prediction for the entire aerospace domain.

“…With the advancement of flight technology, aircraft speeds transitioned from subsonic to transonic, and now supersonic [1][2][3][4]. Increasingly, supersonic vehicles are being used for numerous supersonic cruise missions due to consistent performance enhancements [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization Research on the Heat Transfer Capacity of an Aircraft Fuel Thermal Management System

Zhang,

Lin,

Guo

et al. 2023

The thermal management system (TMS) for aircraft fuel is a critical component of integrated TMSs in aircraft. As such, its optimal design is necessary to ensure the efficient completion of flight missions. This study presents the model building of a numerical simulation model for the fuel TMS, with the objective of minimizing fuel return flow. Sensitivity analysis was performed using variance analysis. The genetic algorithm was utilized for the optimization of the model building, taking into consideration the system’s geometric structure and performance parameters, which include the pipe length, the ram air-fuel HX’s efficiency, and the ram air’s volume flow rate in the ram air cooling subsystem, as design variables. The optimization solution for system design variables yielded a design scheme with the highest working efficiency for the fuel TMS. In this paper, the genetic algorithm in AMEsim software is adopted, which can also effectively optimize the design parameters and achieve the optimization objective. Compared with the original TMS structure, the heat dissipation capacity of the fuel TMS is improved and reduced the return fuel flow by 67.4% after the optimization of system structure parameters.