Design of a Fuel Thermal Management System for Long Range Air Vehicles

Author(s):  
Anthony Fischer
Author(s):  
Rory A. Roberts ◽  
Mitch Wolff ◽  
Sean Nuzum ◽  
Adam Donovan

The demand for electrical power onboard aerospace vehicles continues to grow at an accelerating pace. Accompanied with the electrical power is the increase in thermal demands for removing the low quality waste heat from the electrical components and advanced electronics. The increase in thermal demands onboard an aircraft dramatically impact the capability and performance of the air vehicle due to the low coefficients of performance (COP) of aerospace refrigeration systems. The low COP means the system requires a significant amount of work to lift the thermal waste from the aircraft subsystems. This leads to significant demands on the propulsion system and the power and thermal management systems creating a cycle of diminishing returns, which leads to inefficiency and limited capability of future air vehicles. Alternative components and configurations have the potential to increase the efficiency of the power and thermal management system reducing the overall negative impact on air vehicles’ efficiency and capabilities. A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) integrated with the power and thermal management system has been investigated. The vehicle level impact of this novel configuration has been assessed along with the dynamic behavior of the SOFC when integrated into these systems. The results provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 003685042110259
Author(s):  
Xiao Guoquan ◽  
Wang Huaming ◽  
Chen Lin ◽  
Hong Xiaobin

In the process of vehicle development, the unsteady simulation of thermal management system is very important. A 3D-CFD calculation model of vehicle thermal management is established, and simulations were undertaken for uphill with full loads operations condition. The steady results show that the surface heat transfer coefficient increases to the quadratic parabolic relationship. The unsteady results show that the pulsating temperatures of exhaust and external airflow are higher than about 50°C and lower than 10°C, respectively, and the heat dissipating capacities are higher than about 11%. Accordingly, the conversion equivalent exhaust velocity increased by 1.67%, and the temperature distribution trend is basically the same as unsteady results. The comparison results show that the difference in the under-hood should be not noted, and that the predicted exhaust system surface temperatures using steady velocity equivalent method are low less 10°C than the unsteady results. These results show the steady velocity equivalent method can be used to predict the unsteady heat transfer effect of vehicle thermal management system, and the results obtained by this method are basically consistent with the unsteady results. It will greatly save computing resources and shorten the cycle in the early development of the vehicle thermal management system.


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