Abstract
The Environmental Control Systems ( ECS ), used to provide air to the aircraft cabin at the correct pressure and temperature, is a key driver of maintenance interruptions for military and civil aircraft. Fault detection is particularly difficult, due to the lack of instrumentation and the ability of the ECS’s control system to mask symptoms. Understanding how component degradation affects measurable thermodynamic parameters is key to developing a condition monitoring system for an ECS. This work focuses on the development of a thermodynamic model of a Boeing 737-200 ECS capable of simulating faults in three types of component: heat exchangers, valves, and water separators. The thermodynamic model has been validated using data collected on a ground-based instrumented B737-200 ECS. The results show how a thermodynamic model can be used to simulate the change of temperatures and pressures across the ECS when components degrade.
Highlights
The air supplied into the cabin of a commercial aircraft comes from the Environmental Control System (ECS)
Thermodynamic models have previously proved successful for preliminary top-level design approaches. (Conceição, et al, 2007) compared the advantages and disadvantages of having a 3 or 4 wheel Air Cycle Machine (ACM) as part of an ECS via the use of a thermodynamic model. (Scott & Davis, 1976) and (Junior, et al, 2009) make use of the coefficient of performance (COP) to analyse the contribution of the main thermodynamic parameters, such as compressor and turbine efficiencies or heat exchanger effectiveness, in the global performance of the ECS during a typical flight
A thermodynamic model of a B737-200 ECS, taking into account humidity, was developed, calibrated, and validated with experimental data collected on a real aircraft on the ground
Summary
The air supplied into the cabin of a commercial aircraft comes from the Environmental Control System (ECS). The system level performance of the components of an ECS can be inferred from a thermodynamic optimization, since the global performance of the system is affected by the thermodynamic irreversibility present in the actual system processes, as shown by (Pérez Grande & Leo, 2002) and (Vargas & Bejan, 2001). This means that the optimal arrangement of components can be obtained by means of minimizing the entropy generation of the global system.
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