Dual Expansion Energy Recovery (DEER) Environmental Control System

A balance of mission capability, agility, survivability, affordability and mission range is a key to the advanced fighter aircraft design. The advanced fighter aircraft is equipped with high power and density electronic equipment to achieve a superior level of mission capability. Electrical power supplied to this equipment is generated by engine powered generator. The heat generated by this equipment typically is cooled by an onboard environmental control system (ECS) operated by high-pressure pneumatic air from the engine compressor. Both the supplied power and power generating the cooling source are a power extraction from the engine. As fuel is the sole energy resource in the aircraft, this power presents a penalty of the use of fuel and results in reduction in the mission range. The challenge to ECS designer is to maximize the cooling capacity with the minimum energy consumption. An advanced environmental control system is designed to recover the waste heat from the high power avionics and convert into useful energy and produced a more efficient thermodynamic cycle. The advanced system requires less bleed air to produce the same cooling capacity and results in lighter and smaller system. These features offer a range benefit to the aircraft. This paper compares the advanced system to legacy systems and also describes the key design features.