Received May 16, 2020, accepted May 22, 2020, date of publication May 26, 2020, date of current

version June 30, 2020.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2997676

Modeling Simulation and Temperature Control

on Thermal Characteristics of Airborne
Liquid Cooling System
ZHANGZHI DONG , XIAOGANG LI, ZHE LI , AND YANYAN HOU
Aeronautics Engineering College, Air Force Engineering University, Xi’an 710038, China
Corresponding author: Zhe Li ([email protected])
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61873351.

ABSTRACT Aiming at the temperature control of the liquid cooling system of aircraft electronic equipment,
the thermal characteristics of the system under different temperature conditions are analyzed through model
simulation, and a calculation method is given for the thermal design of the liquid cooling system. This
paper simplifies the system and establishes a numerical calculation model for the heat transfer of the main
components (such as liquid storage tanks, gear pumps, radiators, etc.). The temperature changes in the
main components of the system within the operating temperature range of the system (−40 ◦ C-50 ◦ C)
were calculated, and the thermal characteristics of the cold plate were obtained by using the AMESim
software. Further, temperature control schemes of several liquid cooling systems are compared for their
working efficiency under low temperature and over-temperature conditions based on the original model. The
results show that the temperature index of the airborne liquid cooling system basically meets the technical
requirements of the cold plate inlet temperature (5 ◦ C-30 ◦ C) under typical operating conditions. Under low-
temperature conditions, the rapid heating of the cold plate can be achieved through the electric heater control
scheme. Under high-temperature circumstances, opening the ram air port scheme has a better cooling effect
than increasing the fan speed scheme, but the former needs to consider the flight conditions to avoid the cold
plate temperature exceeding the target range.

INDEX TERMS Liquid cooling system, aerospace simulation, electronics cooling, thermal analysis,
temperature control.

I. INTRODUCTION The air-cooled heat dissipation system is mainly composed

With the increasing demand for equipment in the aviation of a fan and a radiator [5]. It depends on the forced air cooling
field, traditional airborne cooling equipment is constantly of the fan and the internal structure of the radiator. Its essence
updated and improved. In the case of large heat flux dis- is the direct heat exchange between the air and the device.
sipation, traditional convective heat dissipation or forced Aircraft air cooling system or liquid cooling system can be
air cooling are used in the past, resulting in low heat used to cool electronic equipment. For electronic equipment
dissipation efficiency and insufficient temperature control with low heat flux density, an air cooling system can be
precision [1], [2]. The heat transfer coefficient and specific used, and a fan or cooling air can be specially extracted
heat capacity of the liquid are much larger than that of air, from the aircraft’s environmental control system to cool the
and have a higher cooling efficiency [3]. According to the electronic equipment. For electronic equipment with high
literature [4], the water-cooled heat transfer coefficient is heat flux density, if the air cooling method is adopted, many
much larger than the air-cooled heat transfer coefficient—— problems are difficult to solve. The first is that the use of air
the approximate range of gas forced convection heat transfer as a cooling medium cannot meet the requirements of high
coefficient is 20∼100 W/(m2 ·K), and the heat transfer coeffi- heat flux heat transfer of electronic equipment; second, some
cient of forced convection of water is up to 15000 W/(m2 ·K). engines cannot provide an excessively high air intake for the
air cooling system [6]. Besides, due to the small space in
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and the equipment compartment, it is difficult to arrange the air
approving it for publication was Christopher Kitts . cooling pipes in the electronic equipment cabinet.

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Thus, using an airborne liquid cooling system to cool the

avionic electronic equipment (e.g., radar), and using liquid
cooling instead of air cooling can achieve efficient and reli-
able heat regulation [11] below [7]–[11].
For the study of the liquid cooling system and its cool-
ing efficiency, TomLee et al. came up with the concept
of the compact liquid cooling system earlier and proposed
the design criteria and improved methods for the compact
liquid cooling system, which could improve the thermal
performance of the system by selecting high-pressure fans
and improving heat exchange efficiency and the 5.5-liter
system can remove up to 274 W of power from the inlet
liquid to the air, reducing the temperature by 52 degrees
Celsius [12]. Nguyen et al. studied a nanoparticle-water
FIGURE 1. Liquid cooling system schematic.
mixture used in cooling microprocessors or other electronic
components [13]. Experiments showed that the heat transfer
coefficient increased by 40% compared to the base fluid, architectures of aircraft electronic cooling, introduced the
the particle concentration increased, and the temperature of advantages and disadvantages of several typical cooling
the heated component decreased [14]. Zhu et al. designed schemes, and gave simulation examples of thermal analysis
a liquid cooling control system using a single emergency and flow analysis of motor controllers [23]. The research
and integrated digital IC acquisition control system, which of liquid cooling systems in the civil field develops from
reduced the cost of this type of liquid cooling system by the pursuit of refrigeration efficiency to the consideration of
60% [15]. Kim et al. analyzed the influence of a hybrid miniaturization and high reliability of liquid cooling equip-
cooling system on the cooling performance of large power ment. However, there are relatively few studies on the appli-
transformers and its cooling performance is about 22% higher cation of the liquid cooling systems in the field of aviation.
than the worst cooling performance at all flow rates [16]. With the multi-function and complexity of airborne electronic
In the simulation research of the liquid cooling system, equipment, the cooling demand for the system is increasing
with the help of EASY5 software, Jin et al. built the dynamic day by day. It is necessary to replace the traditional forced air-
mathematical model of the fighter evaporative refrigeration cooling with efficient and reliable liquid cooling. Therefore,
system and analyzed the dynamic performance of the sys- from the perspective of heat transfer, the research of modeling
tem [17]. Li et al. established a mathematical model for and simulation on thermal characteristics of the high heat flux
the gas-liquid plate-fin heat exchanger with large thermal components of the system is of great help to the design and
inertia and calculated and analyzed the temperature charac- practical use of the liquid cooling system.
teristics of single-flow and three-flow heat exchangers with This article establishes a mathematical model of the main
Matlab [18]. Li et al. used Matlab/Simulink to analyze the components of the system with a large thermal load, and
influence of different parameter steps on the performance uses the AMESim multidisciplinary software to perform the
of airborne evaporative cycle refrigeration systems [19]. calculation of the thermal characteristics of the entire system.
Zuo et al. built an airborne liquid cooling system model The dynamic thermal characteristics of the liquid cooling
based on AMESim, and mainly introduced the establish- system under several typical system temperature conditions
ment process of the software platform, and made a simple are obtained through simulation. The temperature feedback
calculation and analysis [20]. Marcinichen et al. built the control of the liquid storage tank and heat exchanger is real-
simulation model of gas-liquid two-phase liquid cooling sys- ized through the software state machine module. The research
tem by using the two-phase flow simulation code compiled provides a more comprehensive system thermal simulation
by themselves [21]. In terms of liquid cooling simulation, model and calculation method, which can provide a reference
they all provide references that can be used for reference, for the engineering design, test verification, and system opti-
especially Marcinichen et al. have established a two-phase mization of the airborne liquid cooling system.
flow simulation model, which can well simulate the actual
working situation of the system. II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF SYSTEM THERMAL
In the field of aviation applications, Birur et al. studied CHARACTERISTICS
a liquid cooling system based on a micro-mechanical pump To simplify the system, we consider the main factors and
to realize the thermal control of micro spacecraft with a functional components that have a large impact on the ther-
power heat flow rate exceeding 25W/cm2 [22]. Zhu et al. mal characteristics of the liquid cooling system. The system
developed a new type of liquid cooling system consisting schematic is shown in Figure 1.
of a cooling subsystem, circulation system, and monitoring In the liquid cooling circuit, the liquid storage tank is
subsystem for high power and high heat flow avionics equip- used to store the coolant required for the system to work
ment [6]. Pal et al. summarized various thermal management cyclically. The booster pump uses a small flow gear pump

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driven by a motor, and the component model in AMESim

can be used to simulate the pressure and flow characteristics
of the pump. During the working process of the gear pump,
the dry friction and constant friction of the pump will cause
mechanical losses. When the various components in the pump
are relatively moved, they are lubricated and cooled by the
coolant. It can be considered that the heat generated by the
mechanical loss acts on the coolant, and the coolant is forced
to convection heat exchange with the shell. At the same time,
the shell performs radiative heat exchange and natural con-
vection heat exchange with the environment. The relief valve
FIGURE 2. Heat transfer principle of gear pump.
plays a protective role and relieves the excessive pressure of
the system. The heat exchanger uses a plate-fin radiator, and
its own heat exchanger in AMESim is used to simulate its
the working process. The pump casing performs radiative
working conditions. The hot-side fluid is liquid and the cold-
and convective heat exchange with the air. The heat transfer
side fluid is air. An axial fan is used to force cool the radiator.
principle of the gear pump is shown in Figure 2.
The axial fan is installed at the air outlet of the cold side of
The Nusselt number of the pump casing and the coolant
the radiator and is used for forced air cooling of the radiator.
convective heat exchange is [4]:
The anti-overflow device is installed on the pressurized air
line of the liquid storage tank to prevent the liquid in the Nu = 0.023Re0.8 Pr 0.33 (1)
liquid storage tank from flowing back into the pressurized air
line during the aircraft maneuvering flight. The check valve The Nusselt number of the shell’s natural convective heat
is used to simulate the anti-overflow device in AMESim. exchange with the outside world is [4]:
The entire liquid cooling system uses No.65 cooling liquid
(60% ethylene glycol) as the heat conduction medium [24]. 0.589Ra1/4
Nu = 2 +  4/9 (2)
The clb-7 liquid cooling pump is used to output the cooling 1 + (0.469/Pr)9/16
liquid in the storage tank. The cooling liquid is forced air-
cooled by a plate-fin heat exchanger. After heat dissipation, where, Pr, Re and Ra respectively represent Prandtl number,
it is sent to the cold plate to cool the airborne electronic equip- Reynolds number, Rayleigh number.
ment, and then returns to the liquid storage tank. An axial fan The expression of radiant heat transfer between the shell
is installed at the cold side air outlet of the heat exchanger to and the external environment is:
force the heat exchanger to air-cool.
 
Q̇ = εσ A T 4 − Tenv
4
(3)
The maximum flow of the cold plate during the system’s
operation is 12 L/min, and the heat generation power of where, σ represents Stefan-Boltzmann constant, ε represents
the airborne equipment (cold plate heat generation power) is surface emissivity, T indicates case temperature, Tenv indi-
2000 W. The main components of the heat load included in cates external temperature.
the liquid cooling system are the liquid storage tank, the gear
pump, and the heat exchanger, electric heater, cold plate, and B. THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS MODEL OF PLATE-FIN
pipeline. The thermal characteristic model of components are HEAT EXCHANGER
divided into the following five sections. The heat transfer The Reynolds number of the coolant flow can be expressed
formulas in this article mainly refer to [4] and [25]. as:
To simplify the simulation of physical problems, the fol-
lowing assumptions are made: 1) The flow of coolant is one- Qo d o
Re = (4)
dimensional along the axial direction. 2) The volatilization of Ao νo
the coolant is not considered. 3) The fluid in the pipeline is Reynolds number characterizing fluid flow. Where, d0
incompressible. 4) Ignoring the impact of aircraft maneuver- is the equivalent diameter of the internal pipe of the heat
ing on the flow of coolant. 5) There is no heat loss between exchanger, Q0 is coolant flow, A0 is the cross-sectional area
the heat exchanger fin and the environment. 6) we use the of the pipeline, v0 is kinematic viscosity for coolant.
liquid properties of the initial temperature of the coolant, such The expression of Nusselt number and Stanton number for
as viscosity, density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity, convective heat transfer between liquid and tube wall is [25]:
without considering the properties of the fluid when the (
temperature changes. Nu = 0.245Re0.6 Pr 1/3
(5)
St = 0.245Re−0.4 Pr −2/3
A. THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS MODEL OF GEAR PUMP
Gear pump is used to provide cooling flow to the system. Prandtl number indicates the relationship between the tem-
The fixed power is 150 W, and all the heat is lost during perature boundary layer and the flow boundary layer, and

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reflects the influence of fluid physical properties on the con-

vective heat transfer. Nusselt number, a quasi-number, indi-
cating the intensity of convective heat transfer. The Rayleigh
number is the product of the Grashof number and the Prandtl
number, where the Grashof number describes the relationship
between the buoyancy and viscosity of the fluid.
The Reynolds number of air flow can be expressed as:
Qa d a
Re = (6)
Aa νa
where, Qa is cold-side (air) flow, da is the cold-side equivalent
diameter, va is the kinematic viscosity of the cold side, Aa is
the circulation area of the cold side. FIGURE 3. Heat transfer principle of pipelines.
The Nusselt number of cold side air and hot side fin con-
vection heat transfer can be expressed as [25]:
where, Ti is the coolant inlet temperature, To is the coolant
Re 2/3
 
Nu = 6 (7) outlet meant temperature, W is heat exchange power, q1 is
1000 coolant flow, ρ1 is the coolant density, Cp is the specific heat
Total heat transfer coefficient can be expressed as: of the coolant.
1 1 1
= + (8) D. THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS MODEL OF LIQUID
kA Ao α1 Aa α2
STORAGE TANK
where, A0 is the heat exchange area of the hot side (coolant), The liquid storage tank is used to store the cooling liquid. Its
α1 is the hot-side heat transfer coefficient, Aα is the cold- thermal characteristics are mainly reflected in the convective
side heat exchange area, α2 is the cold-side heat transfer heat exchange between the cooling liquid and the liquid
coefficient. storage tank, and the convective environment and radiant
Expression of the number of heat transfer units can be heat transfer between the liquid storage tank and the external
expressed as: environment.
kA The Nusselt number expression for forced convective heat
NTU = (9)
min ṁo Cpo , ṁa Cpa transfer between the storage tank and the internal coolant is:

where, ṁ0 is hot-side mass flow, ṁα is the cold side mass flow, Nu = 0.027Re0.8 Pr 0.33 (13)
Cp0 is the specific heat of the hot side, Cpα is the specific heat
The Nusselt number expression for the natural convection
of the cold side.
heat transfer between the storage tank and the outside air is:
The expression of heat exchanger efficiency is:
 
1 n h i o Nu = 0.48 (PrGr)0.25 (14)
η = 1 − exp NTU 0.22
exp −CrNTU 0.78
−1
Cr where, Gr is Grashof number.
(10) The expression of the radiant heat transfer between the
where, Cr = max( ṁo Cpo ,ṁa Cpa ) .
min ṁ C ,ṁ C storage tank and the environment is:
( o po a pa )  
The expression of heat exchange capacity of the heat Q̇ = εσ A T 4 − Tenv
4
(15)
exchanger is:
φ = η min(ṁo Cpo , ṁa Cpa ) To0 − Ta0


(11) E. THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PIPELINES
To0
where, is the hot side inlet temperature, Ta0 is the cold side The thermal characteristics of the pipeline are mainly man-
inlet temperature. ifested in the convective heat transfer between the cooling
liquid in the tube and the tube wall, and the convective and
C. THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS MODEL OF COLD PLATE radiative heat transfer between the tube wall and the envi-
When the coolant flows through the cold plate, it will cool the ronment. At the same time, the cooling liquid flowing in the
cold plate. The heat exchange power is 2000 W, here the cold tube will generate a certain pressure loss. The heat transfer
plate is simplified as a simple heat exchange element, that is, principle of pipelines is given in Figure 3.
heat exchanged by the cold plate is used for the temperature The Nusselt number expression for forced convective heat
rise of the cooling liquid. The mathematical model of the cold transfer between the tube wall and the internal coolant is:
plate can be expressed as: Nu = 0.027Re0.8 Pr0.33 (16)
W
To = Ti + (12) The expression of the Nusselt number for the natural con-
q1 ρ1 Cp vection heat transfer between the tube wall and the outside
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FIGURE 5. External structure of the heat exchanger.

TABLE 1. Temperature/altitude test environmental conditions.

FIGURE 4. Simulation model of liquid cooling system.

leak-free, has a wide range of use, and has high cavita-

air is: tion performance.
3) Coolant pipeline: inner diameter 12 mm, wall thickness
Nu = 0.48 (Pr Gr)0.25 (17)
1mm.
The expression of radiant heat transfer between the tube 4) Axial fan: speed 7000 r/min, power 67 W, convec-
wall and the environment is: tion air flow 710 m3 , power 67 W, impeller diameter
  171.5 mm. The fan bleeds air from the environmental
Q̇ = εσ A T 4 − Tenv
4
(18) control system, and if necessary, can open the ram air
port and let the outside air in.
III. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SIMULATION MODEL 5) Heat exchanger [28], [29]: SRQ-7G plate-fin heat
A. SIMILATION MODEL exchanger is used, with a structure of 3 channels
AMESim software is used to build simulation models of and 7-8-7 heat exchanger pipes, as shown in
various components of the airborne liquid cooling system, Figure 5 and Figure 6. The total heat exchange area
which mainly include the liquid storage tank, the aircraft’s of the coolant is 1.5 m2 , the inner pipe diameter is
reverse flight anti-overflow device, the liquid cooling pump, 9.074 mm, the pipe volume is 3.6 L, and the convection
the pipeline oil filter, the heat exchanger, the axial fan, air contact area is 4.7 m2 .
the cold plate, the safety valve, and other system compo- The main performance indicators of the system include a
nents [26]. The system simulation model is shown in Figure 4. maximum flow rate of 12 L/min before the cold plate, and the
The system parameters are determined based on the actual temperature of the cold plate is maintained from 5 to 25 [30].
design of airborne liquid cooling system parameters. In the This article focuses on the thermal characteristics of each
circuit, the axial fan is installed at the cold side air outlet of component to maintain the cold plate temperature within the
the radiator, which is used to force the radiator to cool the air. required temperature range.
The heat exchange process mainly includes the convection
exchange of the storage tank, gear pump, heat exchanger fins, IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS UNDER
cold plate, pipes, coolant, and ambient air or convection air. TYPICAL WORKING CONDITIONS
Taking the airborne radar of a certain type of aircraft as
B. PARAMETER SETTING an example, condition level 1 was selected according to
During the simulation, there is no leakage in the system, and the standard of airborne radar environmental conditions and
the impurity content of the pipeline meets the actual require- test methods in [31]. The standard airborne radar tem-
ments. The main working parameters of its larger thermal perature/altitude test environmental conditions are shown
load components are as follows: in Table 1.
1) Liquid storage tank: rated working pressure 0.3 MPa, In this paper, six operating temperatures of −40 ◦ C,
volume 4 L, cross-sectional area 175∗ 175 mm2 , initial −20 ◦ C, 5 ◦ C, 10 ◦ C, 20 ◦ C and 40 ◦ C, as well as flight
liquid level 100 mm, height range 80 mm-170 mm. heights of ground, 5000 m, and 10000 m, were selected as
2) Booster pump [27]: CLB-7 type liquid cooling pump working conditions when analyzing the cooling of nose radar
is selected, with a rated working pressure of 0.6 MPa, by the liquid cooling system. The air supply temperature of
a rated flow of 12 L/min, and a rated power of 150 W. the environmental control system is 10 ◦ C.
The main feature of the pump is that there is no The temperature changes of the main components of
shaft seal. The pump seal is realized by the combined the system at operating temperatures of 5 ◦ C are shown
structure of the pump and the motor. It is completely in figure 7.

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FIGURE 6. Internal structure of the heat exchanger.

FIGURE 8. Cold plate temperature change.

can see the cold plate temperature control in 17.93 ◦ C to

20.61 ◦ C and stable time is about an average of 150 s, which
can satisfy the cold plate inlet temperature of technical index
requirements (5 ◦ C- 25◦ C).

V. COMPARISON OF SEVERAL TEMPERATURE CONTROL

METHODS
We compare and calculate the temperature control methods
used in the system’s low and high temperature conditions to
determine the impact of different methods on the system’s
FIGURE 7. System temperature changes at 5.
stable temperature and the rate of temperature change.
TABLE 2. Stable temperature of key components.
A. SYSTEM LOW TEMPERATURE
1) ELECTRIC HEATER
The method of installing a stainless steel rod-type electric
heater on the lower wall plate of the liquid storage tank,
and feedback control the electric heater through the tem-
perature sensor signal of the cold plate and the outlet of
the liquid storage tank. When the cold plate temperature is
less than 5, the low-temperature heating relay is connected
and the electric heater is turned on. When the temperature
of the cold plate is higher than 16, the relay is turned off,
The system starts to work and reaches a stable state after and the electric heater stops heating. When the temperature of
about 150 s. Considering the mechanical heat generation the storage tank is higher than 40, the overheating protection
and pipeline loss of gear pump before the coolant enters the relay is turned off, and the electric heater is turned off. The
radiator, the inlet temperature of the radiator is the highest, temperature control is illustrated in figure 9.
higher than the outlet temperature of the liquid storage tank, The control of the electric heater is on/off position control.
and the temperature of the cold plate is close to that of the During the simulation process, we use the state machine in
radiator outlet. AMESim to simulate the actual electric heater temperature
Due to the heating generated by the work of various com- control. The block diagram of the state machine is presented
ponents, when the system works at 0.87 s, the temperature at in figure 10.
the inlet and outlet of the radiator rises briefly. Subsequently, We define the temperature rise rate (K/s) as the approxi-
the cooling effect of the radiator is greater than the heating mate ratio of starting temperature to stable temperature and
effect of the coolant, and the temperature drops briefly. The elapsed time. It can be seen from the figure 11 that the
cooling plate continuously transfers heat to the cooling liq- stable temperature of the cold plate at the initial temperature
uid in the system, and the radiator continuously works to of −20 is about 18.3. After the temperature control of the
dissipate heat from the cooling liquid. Finally, the system electric heater is applied, the temperature rise rate of the
temperature slowly increases to the equilibrium state. The cold plate is significantly faster. The rate of 18.3 ◦ C is about
stable temperature of the main components of the system is 0.0089 ◦ C/s, and the heating rate when there is an electric
shown in Table 2. heater is about 0.0166 ◦ C/s. It can also be seen from the
Figure 8 is the thermal characteristic curve of the cold figure 12 that the temperature rising rate without controlling
plate under the temperature condition(−40 ◦ C-40 ◦ C), you the cold plate at −40 ◦ C is about 0.1092 ◦ C/s, and the heating

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FIGURE 11. The temperature of the cold plate changes at −20.

FIGURE 12. The temperature of the cold plate changes at −40.

FIGURE 9. Electric heater temperature control diagram: a) Model sketch

b) Control flowchart.

FIGURE 13. Fan speed control diagram.

fan is 7000 r/min. In AMESim, we set three gears in AMEsim,

5000 r/min, 7000r/min, and turning off the fan. The speed of
the fan in three gears is adjusted to 7000 r/min when the cold
plate temperature (temp) is higher than 30. When the cold
plate temperature is higher than 5, the fan speed is adjusted to
5000 r/min. When the cold plate temperature is lower than 5,
the fan is turned off. The speed control strategy of the fan
and the block diagram of the state machine are presented
FIGURE 10. Electric heater temperature control state machine.
in figure 13 and figure 14.

rate is 0.2149 ◦ C/s when there is an electric heater. Therefore, 2) OPEN THE RAM AIR PORT(METHOD 2)
the application of an electric heater in this type of liquid Under normal circumstances, during a cruise, the position of
cooling source system is very useful for the rapid temperature the ram air conditioning system adjustment plate is adjusted
rise of the system at a low temperature. Almost doubled. between the normal open and closed positions; during take-
off and landing, the adjustment plate position is adjusted to
B. SYSTEM HIGH TEMPERATURE the normal open position. When the aircraft is in the air,
1) INCREASE THE FAN SPEED(METHOD 1) the baffle is retracted. Due to the low external temperature,
It adopts segmented speed control to change the fan speed the general adjustment plate is only fully opened for a short
to change the fan air volume to improve the heat exchange time when the flaps are not closed, and then closed when the
capacity of the coolant. The maximum speed of the axial flow flaps are closed.

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FIGURE 14. Fan speed control state machine.

FIGURE 15. Comparison of cooling Plate cooling effects of several

TABLE 3. Cold-side gas properties in flight status [32]. Schemes at 40 ◦ C. (Normal mode refers to the situation where the system
is not controlled in Section IV).

When the temperature is higher than 5, the ram air port

is opened to optimize the heat dissipation effect. The state
machine is packaged and added to the model as a simulation
module.
Know the air inlet temperature and flow of the aircraft’s
environmental control system, and the temperature and flow FIGURE 16. Comparison of cooling plate cooling effects of several
schemes at 50 ◦ C.
of the ram air outlet at the corresponding altitude to obtain the
mixed air temperature TH0 (19), and then get the state proper-
ties of the mixed air under the flight conditions of 5000 m and
10000 m, as shown in the Table 3. the punch air port has requirements for flight conditions, and
(TH − TH0 ) × QH = (TH0 − TC ) × QC (19) the matching of the flight altitude and inlet flow needs to be
further tested.
where, TH is the air inlet temperature of the environmental
control system, TC is the air inlet temperature of the ram air VI. CONCLUSION
port, TH0 is the air temperature after mixing. The thermal characteristic model of the airborne liquid cool-
The temperature control situation when the two systems ing system was established, and the dynamic changes of
are over-temperature is shown in figure 15 and figure 16. the temperature of the system’s liquid storage tank, radiator,
When the ram air port is opened under the flight altitude and mainly cold plate were calculated within the range from
of 5000 m, the temperature of the cold plate drops to −40 ◦ C to 40 ◦ C, and several temperature control schemes
7.78 ◦ C and 10.35 ◦ C, and method 1) drops to 19.80 ◦ C and were compared. We came to the following conclusions:
20.79 ◦ C. According to the temperature drop curve, it can be
obtained that the cooling rate of normal cooling of the system 1) Under typical working conditions, the stable tempera-
at 40 ◦ C is 0.1385 ◦ C/s. The temperature drop rate of normal ture of the cold plate can meet the technical require-
cooling of the system at 50 ◦ C is 0.2039 ◦ C/s, the temperature ments of cold plate inlet temperature (5 ◦ C-25 ◦ C).
drop rate with method1 is 0.2656 ◦ C/s, the temperature drop 2) Under low temperature, the control scheme of the elec-
rate with method2 is 0.3605 ◦ C/s. Therefore, to increase the tric heater can realize the rapid heating of the cold plate.
fan speed, method1, can speed up The temperature of the 3) The scheme of opening the stamping air port of aircraft
cold plate decreases, but the effect is limited; method2 has under high temperature has better cooling effect than
a significantly better cooling effect than method1. the scheme of increasing the fan speed, but the former
When the ram air port is opened at a flight height of needs to consider the flight condition to avoid the cold
10000m, the cold plate temperature drops to −0.14 and 4.96. plate temperature exceeding the index range, and the
Although the temperature drops quickly, it exceeds the target control of the inlet flow and temperature of the stamp-
requirement(5 ◦ C-25 ◦ C). Therefore, the method of opening ing air port needs to be further studied.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT [24] 2009 ASHRAE Handbook-Fundamentals, ASHRAE, Atlanta, GA, USA,

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for 2009.
[25] A. Y. Cengel, Heat Transfer: A Practical Approach. Columbus, GA, USA:
their valuable comments and suggestions. McGraw-Hill, 2003.
[26] F.-Y. Ling and Q.-X. Ye, Modeling and Simulation of AMESim System:
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applications,’’ in Proc. 22nd Annu. IEEE Semiconductor Thermal Meas. lege of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnic
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Compon., Hybrids, Manuf. Technol., vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 786–793, Oct. 1992. main research interests include aircraft fluid trans-
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[15] E.-Q. Zhu, ‘‘Development of liquid cooling source control system,’’ M. S. received the Ph.D. degree in aerospace science and
thesis, NJUST, Nanjing, China, 2011. technology from Air Force Engineering Univer-
[16] Y. J. Kim, M. Jeong, Y. G. Park, and M. Y. Ha, ‘‘A numerical study sity, China, in 2019. Since June 2019, he has been
of the effect of a hybrid cooling system on the cooling performance of a Lecturer with the Aircraft Engineering Depart-
a large power transformer,’’ Appl. Thermal Eng., vol. 136, pp. 275–286, ment, Air Force Engineering University. He is the
May 2018. author of two books and ten articles. His research
[17] J. Min, ‘‘Research on control and simulation of evaporative refrigeration interests include flight modeling and simulation,
cycle system of fighter,’’ Ph.D. dissertation, UESTC, Chengdu, China, flight risk quantification, flight safety, accidents
2009. evolution process repetition, and design of flight
[18] G.-T. Li, ‘‘The simulation and research of small liquid cooling system,’’ control law.
M.S. thesis, NUAA, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, 2012.
[19] Y.-X. Li, P. Quan, L.-Z. Li, and L. Juan, ‘‘Dynamic numerical investi-
gations of on-board vapor-compression refrigeration system,’’ J. Nanjing YANYAN HOU received the B.S. degree in elec-
Univ. Sci. Technol., vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 127–132, 2013. trical engineering and automation and the M.S.
[20] B.-L. Zuo, X.-B. Su, K.-Q. Cao, and N. Li, ‘‘Design and simulation of degree in control theory and control engineering
liquid cooling source system based on AMESim,’’ Mach. Tool Hydraul., from the Shaanxi University of Science and Tech-
vol. 42, no. 16, pp. 78–81, 2017.
nology, Xi’an, China, in 2003 and 2008, respec-
[21] J. B. Marcinichen, R. L. Amalfi, and N. Lamaison, ‘‘Two-phase liquid
tively.
cooling system for electronics, part 4: Modeling and simulations,’’ in Proc.
Since 2015, she has been an Associate Profes-
ITerm, 2017, pp. 696–705.
[22] G. C. Birur, T. W. Sur, A. D. Paris, P. Shakkottai, and S. I. Haapanen, sor with the College of Aeronautical Engineering,
‘‘Micro/nano spacecraft thermal control using a mems-based pumped liq- Air Force Engineering University. Her research
uid cooling system,’’ Proc. SPIE, vol. 4560, pp. 196–206, Sep. 2001. interests include avionics mechatronics and flight
[23] D. Pal and M. Severson, ‘‘Liquid cooled system for aircraft power elec- dynamics modeling.
tronics cooling,’’ in Proc. ITherm, Orlando, FL, USA, 2017, pp. 800–805.

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