Fast Heating Model for the Aircraft Cabin Air

Zhi Yang,Zhengwei Long,Guangwen Wang

doi:10.3390/en12183565

Zhi Yang, Zhengwei Long + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en12183565

Copy DOI

Abstract

Maintaining a suitable cabin air temperature distribution is essential for providing an acceptable thermal environment for passengers and crew. However, cabin air may be very cold for the first flight in winter morning. It could be difficult to heat quickly the cabin air and to maintain an acceptable temperature gradient before boarding with the existing environmental control system. This study developed numerical model for predicting the heating process that coupled airflow and heat transfer in a cabin. The model was validated by using the experimental data obtained from an MD-82 airliner. With the validated numerical model, this investigation proposed to use an electric blanket to heat cabin air quickly and to reduce the air temperature gradient.

Highlights

If a commercial airplane is parked overnight in cold winter, the structure and cabin air of the airplane would be very cold for passengers before the first flight morning
The final cabin air temperature of the lower zone could be further increased to a very comfortable level for the passengers. These results indicate that the model developed in this paper was very convenient for the analysis of the heating methods for the aircraft cabin air
This study developed an unsteady hybrid computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the fast heating process for the

Summary

Introduction

If a commercial airplane is parked overnight in cold winter, the structure and cabin air of the airplane would be very cold for passengers before the first flight morning This would cause harm to passengers due to the low temperature because the thermal comfort is an important part of cabin comfort, which influences the human health significantly [1,2]. In order to provide a comfortable cabin environment with acceptable environmental parameters, airliners hope to board passengers within an hour in their first service in the morning after the environmental control system (ECS) is turned on. This process is called the fast heating. The study focusing on the fast heating process in cabin is still unavailable

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion