Advanced Carbon-Based Fan Duct Heat Exchanger

Advanced ceramic-based composite heat exchanger offers the potential to reduce weight, improve heat exchanger performance, increase aircraft payload, and decrease life-cycle cost. Under the proposed Phase II effort, Allcomp plans to develop a full-size composite Fan Duct heat exchanger for JSF application. The proposed heat exchanger has a cross-flow compact design using advanced high conductivity core materials such as C-C plate fin and carbon foam. In this proposal, critical materials and technologies identified in Phase I will be further optimized. Design optimizations will be conducted on heat exchanger cores and containment structures to create a balanced design meeting thermal, structural and mass requirements simultaneously. Composite headers will also be designed and integrated into the overall heat exchanger structure. A two-year program is proposed. In the first year, we plan to design, fabricate and test a rectangular full size heat exchanger. In the 2nd year, we plan to further optimize the design and fabricate/ test a conforming curved fan duct heat exchanger that is placed inside the designated annular space located inside the engine shroud.