Aircraft Skin-Cooling System for Thermal Management of Onboard High-Power Electronics

Abstract

Integrationofhigh-powerelectronicdevicesintoexisting aircraft,whileminimizing theimpactofadditionalheat load on the environmental control system of the aircraft, requires innovative approaches. One such approach is to reject heat through the aircraft skin by use of internal skin ducts with enhanced surfaces. This approach requires a system-level consideration of the effect of cooling ducts, inlets, and outlets on the performance of the electronic equipment and effectiveness of the heat rejection system. The development of a system-level model to evaluate the performance of electronic equipment in an aircraft cabin and heat rejection through the skin is described. The outersurfaceofthefuselageistreatedasaheatexchanger.Hotairfromanequipmentexhaustplenumisdrawninto a series of bafe ed ducts within thefuselage support structure, where the heat is rejected and then recirculated into the cabin. The cooler air from the cabin is then drawn into the electronic equipment. The aircraft air conditioning unit is also modeled to provide chilled air directly into the cabin. Also, a series of tests is described, which were performed to verify the model assumptions forheat dissipation from and aire ow through theequipment. Thetests were performed using the actual electronic equipment in a representative cabin cone guration. Results indicate very good agreement between the analytical calculations for the design point and model predictions.