Thermal Management System Considerations for a Hybrid-Electric Commuter Aircraft

When it comes to novel aircraft concepts, thermal management system (TMS) design is a ubiquitous task, even at the conceptual design phase. This is owing to its impact on the total weight of the aircraft, cooling drag, and overall performance. The commuter air transportation has recently regained attention and is seen as a solution to employ partial or full electrification in the upcoming decades due to its low power requirement and potential benefit of faster "door-to-door " traveling. This work examines the TMS characteristics to cool a battery-powered aft-fan engine. A literature review is initially performed on other research associated with TMS design. The development and weight evaluation of the baseline TMS for this type of propulsive technology are then presented, including the characterization of system redundancy effects on the overall TMS weight. Results show that the TMS design is a function of the selected propulsive configuration and energy management throughout the mission. Primarily, this relates to the cooling method selected, the heat exchangers as the major mass contributors of the TMS, the positioning of components used for the propulsive configuration, and the imposed certification constraints. Finally, the selected TMS design is calculated to have a combined specific cooling of 0.79 kW/kg.