Performance of a civil aircraft environmental control system coupled with hot water supplying

Abstract

• ·An aircraft environment control system coupled with supplying hot water is proposed. • ·This new system has self-circulation mode and hot water supplying mode. • ·Hot water with constant temperature of 55 °C can be provided in this new system. • ·Exergy efficiency of the new system with hot water supplying mode is 5.6% higher. • ·The new system can save 1.17% of the aircraft’s fuel consumption per hour. Aircraft travel has quickly become the most enthusiastic and lowest-carbon mean of transportation for people to travel remotely. However, with the increase in the number of long-distance flights, at present, electric heating is widely used in domestic civil aircraft to supply hot water, which will challenge the energy system of aircraft. Especially, when the hot water requirement is huge. In this paper, a novel aircraft environmental control system coupled with hot water supplying is proposed. This novel system has two operating modes, self-circulation mode and hot water supplying mode. Results show that hot water with constant temperature of 55 °C can be provided and the temperature requirement of the aircraft environmental control system is met in the novel system. Compared with the current aircraft environmental control systems, the exergy loss of dominant components can be decreased in novel system. Compared with the current system, the exergy efficiency of the novel system with self-circulating mode is 3.18% higher, and the exergy efficiency of the novel system with hot water supplying mode is 5.6% higher. The novel system can save 1.17% of the aircraft’s fuel consumption per hour, and the approach to reduce the exergy loss of the novel system is proposed.