A Simple Thermal Model of Fuel Thermal Management System in Aircraft Engine

Abstract

The architecture of the Fuel Thermal Management System (FTMS) in a commercial aircraft engine was built to model and simulate the fuel system. The study shows the thermal interactions between the fuel and engine lubrication oil through the mission profile of a high bypass ratio, two-spool turbofan engine. Fuel temperature was monitored as it flowed through each sub-component of the fuel system during the mission. The heat load in the fuel system strongly depended on the fuel flow rate, and was significantly increased for the periods of cruise and descent with decrease of fuel flow rate, rather than for the periods of take-off. Due to the thermal interaction in the pump housing, the fuel temperature at the outlet of the low-pressure pump was increased (4.0, 9.2, and 30.0) % over the case without thermal interaction for take-off, cruise, and descent, respectively.