<< back Back to
International CAE Conference Program

 

Vapour cycle for avionics rack temperature control

Antonio Romano, Umberto Garofalo
Alenia Aermacchi

To increase usefulness and effective life of the existing tactical aircraft, significant avionics upgrades are required. The next generation of electronics will be densely packaged and will require increased cooling capacities with high flow rate and low coolant temperatures. Therefore advanced cooling design with low impact on aircraft Environmental Control System (ECS) performance and cabin comfort become a key factor for tactical aircraft avionics update.
From this perspective Vapour Cycle Cooling System (VCCS) offers a cost-effective solution which avoids the redesign of avionics modules or aircraft cooling systems, and does not affect the cabin comfort. VCCS behaviour has been simulated for its evaporator air side through a dedicated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach, providing the flow balancing of the circuits and evaluating the relevant pressure losses and temperature pattern. In particular, using an iterative approach, the mass flow openings between ducts and rack have been sized in order to satisfy the cooling requirements of the equipment installed inside. The CFD model has been demonstrated to be a powerful and flexible tool that allowed to quickly identify the adequate solution and simultaneously to minimize the impact on the aircraft, reducing also the involvement of experimental activities.