Performance analysis of dual-tank fuel thermal management system

With the increase of aircraft thermal load, fuel thermal management has become an important consideration in the design and operation of modern aircraft. This paper establishes a dynamics model of the dual-tank topology fuel thermal management system considering heat loss, presents a management strategy considering heat loss, and evaluates the performance of the system using three indexes: thermal endurance, heat sink utilization efficiency, and waste heat utilization efficiency. Combined with typical examples, the derived dynamics model is verified. Compared with the traditional single-tank topology fuel thermal management system, the dual-tank topology fuel thermal management system can improve the thermal endurance of the system by 36.8%. On this basis, the influence of design parameters of the thermal management system on operation effect is analyzed. The results show that the reduction of the total fuel mass flow rate can enhance both the heat sink utilization efficiency and the waste heat utilization efficiency of the system. If the total capacity of the fuel tank remains unchanged, the appropriate reduction of the capacity of the recirculation tank can improve the thermal endurance of the system. For the example in this article, reducing the recirculation tank capacity by 100 kg will increase the thermal endurance by about 109 s as the total fuel mass flow rate is 1 kg/s. This research can provide reference for the design of aircraft fuel thermal management systems.