Candent Technologies is proposing to design and develop a light weight and robust advanced aircraft engine inlet heat exchanger system capable of dissipating large amounts of waste heat produced by various aircraft systems, such as electronic and weapon systems. The design will minimize pressure losses and flow distortion, will also maximize heat exchanger effectiveness, as well as improve other aircraft engine inlet characteristics, particularly in serpentine duct inlets. The design process will utilize state of the art CFD, FEA, and multi-objective optimization tools to define the optimum system within the stated requirements.
Benefit: The leap in aircraft electronic and weapon system capability continues to evolve and grow, propelled by the miniaturization of electronics and related substantial reductions in power consumption: however, the enabling technologies are also contributing to the proliferation of aircraft electronic systems and their functionality, which comes with a corollary severe growth in waste heat rejection by those systems, creating a need for Thermal Management systems that are highly effective, highly complex, and have high waste heat dissipation capability, which in most current instances require multiple heat exchangers located throughout the aircraft. The proposed Candent engine inlet heat exchanger system will have high power density capability and the capacity for consolidating the dissipation of the aircraft systems waste heat, thus reducing the number of required heat exchangers installed in the aircraft. At the same time, the design minimizes complexity, maintenance requirements, weight, cost, and also reduces engine inlet distortion and pressure losses, which enhance engine performance and operability. The design of the heat exchanger also provides an opportunity to improve the LO characteristics of the aircraft.
Keywords: Waste Heat Rejection, Waste Heat Rejection, Aircraft Inlet, Multi-objective optimization, inlet distortion, Thermal Management, heat exchanger
