Comparative Analysis of Thermal Management Architectures to Address Evolving Thermal Requirements of Aircraft Systems

Recent advances in aircraft technology have raised much concern over the manner in which aircraft thermal management is carried out. These advances range from the incorporation of high-power electronics to transporting thermal loads at high temperatures. These types of technological advances have brought about a necessity for new aircraft thermal management architectures in order to maintain reasonable cost, size, weight, and power requirements of the overall system. The objective of this study is to address the requirements and performance aspects of existing system configurations in an effort to identify inefficiencies and highlight potential areas for improvement. As a result of this study, a new aircraft thermal management architecture, which can best be described as a vapor-compression thermal bus, is proposed as a replacement for existing technology. This paper will present the findings of a thermodynamic analysis that compares the requirements and performance aspects of existing architectures to those of the vapor-compression thermal bus.