Manifolded micro-groove aircraft heat exchangers

The trend of replacing hydraulic and pneumatic drive systems with power electronics and electrical drives has led to significant increases in the on-board power requirements in military aircraft. Although electrical systems are typically highly efficient, still a significant portion of the electrical energy is eventually converted into heat, thus leading to considerable thermal management challenges. Moreover, the efforts to outfit aircraft with directed energy weapons (DEW) heighten the thermal challenges. Since these weapons are highly inefficient, a considerable portion of the energy required to operate them is converted into waste heat, and this heat must be efficiently transferred to a suitable heat sink in order to be able to deploy these systems and other power electronics on aircraft. We propose using a new heat exchanger configuration that should result in more compact and lighter weight components by generating higher heat transfer coefficients at lower pumping power than other heat exchanger geometries. In Phase I an aircraft condenser based on this technology was estimated to be 69% smaller and 61% lighter than a state-of-the-art conventional condenser, and the PAO-side pressure drop was reduced by 66%. We will be working with Honeywell Aerospace and the University of Maryland during Phase II.