System design of aircraft air conditioning system (2^nd Report: Study on the simulation modelling of the cross flow heat exchanger)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop an analytical model of cross-flow heat exchangers with offset strip fins which are usually equipped in the aircraft air conditioning system (so called the environmental control system, ECS). The ECS mainly consists of four cross-flow heat exchanges, i.e., a primary heat exchanger, a secondary heat exchanger, a reheater and a condenser. Because of the special requirements of the design for the aircraft, the primary and secondary heat exchangers are set adjoiningly; the reheater and the condenser are also set adjoingly. Therefore, in both the pairs, the effect of the temperature profile of the upstream component (the secondary heat exchanger or the reheater) on those of the downstream component (the primary heat exchanger or the condenser) should be taken into account for precise prediction of the system. To this end, a core element model was newly proposed in this study. In addition to the effect of temperature profile, phase changes (condensation and evaporation) of water included in the humid air simultaneously occur except for the primary heat exchanger. Regarding these phenomena, the method of sensible heat fraction (SHF) to convert the latent heat into the equivalent sensible heat was introduced, and the global and local SHF models were examined by comparison with the experiments. The prediction by these models were found to agree well with the actual performance of the ECS operations.