TY - GEN
T1 - System-level utilization of low-grade, mw-scale thermal loads for electric aircraft
AU - White, Andrew Scott
AU - Waddington, Elias
AU - Merret, Jason M.
AU - Ansell, Phillip J.
AU - Greitzer, Edward M.
AU - Hall, David K.
N1 - This work was supported by NASA under award number 80NSSC19M0125 as part of the Center for High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft (CHEETA). This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1745302. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Special thanks are extended to Chellappa Balan, James Falcone, and Mike Stoia of The Boeing Company and Wolfgang Stautner of General Electric Global Research, for their contributions to hydrogen fuel cell and liquid hydrogen storage design, respectively.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This paper describes the analysis of a hydrogen fuel-cell-powered transport-category aircraft, similar in mission performance to a Boeing 737-800. The configuration examined produced peak waste heat loads up to 16 megawatts. Contemporary thermal dissipation systems, such as radiators, lead to a substantial drag contribution due to the large cooling surfaces required. In the paper, we 1) characterize the magnitude, occurrence, and effect of the thermal management challenge for fuel-cell-powered civil air transport, as exemplified through the CHEETA aircraft; 2) investigate multiple thermal management strategies that leverage thermal energy deposition from waste heat sources as a contribution within the propulsion system; and 3) demonstrate the impact of applying one of those strategies to enhance aircraft performance. We show that thermal system design for MW-scale electric aircraft cannot be considered as a simple drag penalty to be quantified after preliminary design is complete: power, propulsion, and thermal systems must be designed together.
AB - This paper describes the analysis of a hydrogen fuel-cell-powered transport-category aircraft, similar in mission performance to a Boeing 737-800. The configuration examined produced peak waste heat loads up to 16 megawatts. Contemporary thermal dissipation systems, such as radiators, lead to a substantial drag contribution due to the large cooling surfaces required. In the paper, we 1) characterize the magnitude, occurrence, and effect of the thermal management challenge for fuel-cell-powered civil air transport, as exemplified through the CHEETA aircraft; 2) investigate multiple thermal management strategies that leverage thermal energy deposition from waste heat sources as a contribution within the propulsion system; and 3) demonstrate the impact of applying one of those strategies to enhance aircraft performance. We show that thermal system design for MW-scale electric aircraft cannot be considered as a simple drag penalty to be quantified after preliminary design is complete: power, propulsion, and thermal systems must be designed together.
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U2 - 10.2514/6.2022-3291
DO - 10.2514/6.2022-3291
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85135369833
SN - 9781624106354
T3 - AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum
BT - AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum
PB - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
T2 - AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum
Y2 - 27 June 2022 through 1 July 2022
ER -