Optimization methodology for heat exchange architectures in fuel thermal management system based on entransy dissipation theory

Abstract

Fuel thermal management system is one of the most critical thermal management platforms within modern aircraft. The layout of their heat exchange architectures directly determines thermal management performance. This paper addresses the issue of inaccurate optimization results in heat exchange architecture optimization for fuel thermal management system, which arises from the lack of an optimal fuel distribution strategy. To fully exploit the heat dissipation performance of all potential architectures, a globally optimal fuel distribution strategy is proposed based on the entransy dissipation extremum principle. Furthermore, a concise heat exchange architecture coding method is designed using graph theory to characterize the fuel thermal management system. On this basis, a general heat exchange architecture optimization algorithm is proposed to autonomously generate and arrange heat exchange architectures with multiple temperature constraints. Compared with traditional FTMS fuel allocation strategies, the proposed strategy achieves a fuel saving of 76.36%. Under given operating conditions, eight optimal heat exchange architectures are arranged using five subsystems as examples. The underlying reason for the superior thermal management performance of the optimal heat exchange architecture is demonstrated from the perspective of subsystem temperature margins. Results demonstrate that the proposed fuel allocation strategy and heat exchange architecture optimization algorithm are suitable for solving complex heat exchange architecture optimization problems involving multiple subsystems.