Development of a Large-Scale Thermosyphon for Cooling the Fault Management System of a MW-Scale Electric Aircraft

Abstract

Thermal management represents a significant challenge for electric aircraft due to the large quantity of low-grade waste heat that must be dissipated. To solve this challenge, a lightweight solid-state thermal management system for MW-scale hybrid electric aircraft is being developed. The system utilizes an acoustic heat pump to actively cool electronic components and elevate the temperature of the heat. The waste heat is then recycled by distributing it throughout the aircraft via a network of heat pipes and thermosyphons. By recycling the waste heat, the overall system efficiency can be improved. This paper will specifically focus on the design and testing of a thermosyphon network for distributing the waste heat generated by the DC fault management system of the aircraft. The thermosyphon will be capable of extracting 5kW of heat from the hot end of the acoustic heat pump and delivering this heat to various locations on the aircraft that can benefit from thermal energy