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Exergy And Energy Analysis Of An Aircraft Air Cycle Machine At Designated

Altitude

Conference Paper · April 2015

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 7th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium

Exergy and Energy Analysis of an Aircraft Air Cycle Machine at Designated Altitude

1*
Ayaz SÜLEYMAN KAĞAN, 1 Altuntaş ÖNDER, 2 Açıkkalp EMİN, 1 Karakoç T.HİKMET
1
Anadolu University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Airframe and Powerplant Maintenance
Eskişehir, 26470, Turkey
2 Bilecik S.E. University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Bilecik, 11210, Turkey

* E-mail: s_kaganayaz@hotmail.com

Keywords: Energy, exergy, air cycle machine, efficiency

Abstract
In this paper energy and exergy analysis are performed to an aircraft air cycle machine. Air cycle machine is
essential to ventilate aircraft cabin during commercial flights. Exergy destruction rates and energy parameters of
each component are investigated at a designated aircraft cruise altitude which is 10,789 meters and ambient air that
is -55 °C. The thermodynamic parameters used here to obtain the results are real ones from actual devices. Exergy
flow supplied to the air cycle machine is found as 235.392 kW. Exergy destruction rate of primary heat exchanger
calculated as 33.839 kW. Exergy destruction rate of turbine, compressor and secondary heat exchanger section is
calculated to be 55.65 kW.

I. Introduction part in the system and outlet pressure also change.

The purpose of an aircraft air cycle machine is to
In this regard, exergy analysis is very important for
provide given amount of air with certain pressure and
aircraft systems. Exergy destruction rates cause
temperature to cabin and cockpit of an aircraft in order
sytems to be less than theoretical efficiency. By making
to maintain comfort of passengers and crew of it.
exergy calculations and diagrams, it is possible to
Aircycle machines also provide cooling for electronic
understand which system has greater oppurtinity to
devices of aircrafts.
optimize stated by Bejan (2002). Also, optimizing
systems of an aircraft, operating costs and
Efficiency of the devices which consume energy and
payload/range can decrease is emphasized by Bejan
emissions of greenhouse gases are of great
and Siems (2001).
importance because of increasing global warming
concerns nowadays. At the point of view of aviation
industry, there are now 19,600 commercial airplanes Nomenclature
serving and this number will be 35,300 by the year of
T : Temperature (K)
2024. This number was 16,800 at the year of 2007
P : Pressure (kPa)
according to Karakoç et al. (2006). So comsuming less
h : Enthalpy (kj.kg-1)
energy and environmentally friendly devices will be
s : Entropy (kj.kg-1.K-1)
concerns of the future too.
M : Mass flow rate (kg.s-1)
E : Energy (kW)
Leo and Perez-Grande (2005) analyzed
X : Exergy (kW)
thermoeconomically an environmental control system
R : Ideal gas constant (kj.kg-1.K-1)
consisting of an air cycle machine at different pressure
t : Time (s)
rates of engine bleed air. As a result, they found that
: Exergy of flow (kW)
the least cost of the system is at nearest rate of real
C : Compressor
engine bleed pressure and real engine pressure can
T : Turbine
not be modified much because of the other
systems(pnomatic) also need engine bleed air, but still
an optimization oppurtunity is possible. Superscripts
° : Degree
In another study, Perez-Grande and Leo (2002) studied
goemetric optimization of heat exchangers located at Subscripts
environmental control system of an aircraft and aimed inl : Inlet
both to minimize the weight of the heat exchangers and out : Outlet
to diminish entropy generation by the heat exchangers. dest : Destructed
However they ruled out total efficiency of the
environmental control system because of a trade off In this study, exergy diagrams of an aircraft air cycle
solution. Zhao et al. (2009) carried out experimental machine are created. Because of air cycle machines
study on dynamic response of an environmental are using engine bleed air, optimization of these
control system and concluded that when working cases machines is thought to improve overall energy
of the system change, efficiency of turbine which takes efficiency of the aircrafts. According to Evans
(1991), %1 usage of engine bleed air is increasing

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specific fuel comsumption of a turbofan engine with
an after burner at the same rate. Also according to
Zilio and Patricelli (2014), increasing engine bleed air
mass flow rate and temperature is also increasing fuel
comsumption of the engine.
II. System
II.1. Description
Every commercial aircraft has one or two air cycle
machine. Working fluid in these machines is air itself.
And vaporizing or condensing of this fluid is not
involved. Scheme of the system is given at Figure 1.
The aircraft is assumed to be at the altitude of 10,789
meters which has the temperature of -55°C. Air is
supposed to be ideal gas. The air has a mass flow rate
of 1 kg.s-1 at the point 1.
Fig. 1: System scheme
Air is bled from the main engine compressors through
a flow control valve around 250 kPa and it is very hot,
higher than 200°C, because of the adiabatic
compression-heating. As pressure and temperature of
bleeding depends on compressor stage and spinning
rate, this pressure is regulated by having two or three
bleedings at different stages and control valves.
The hot air always requires cooling before entering the
cabin, but a simple heat exchanger is not efficient to
cool that amount of air. A heat exchanger (precooler) at
the engine cools the bled air to 180°C. Pre-cooled air is
then cooled in a primary heat exchanger (Figure 1) to
110°C and enters the compressor which increases the
temperature to 210°C and enters a second heat
exchanger that diminishes the temperature of the air to
100°C. Pressure losses at these compact heat
exchangers are assumed to be 20.4 kPa. Later, air
goes through a turbine and exits at 5°C to be mixed
with hotter air at 100°C to get the 35°C.
Ram air is used as a heat sink in all heat exchangers.
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7th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium
Ram air is captured through an inlet door and a diffuser
and forced by a fan to go trough the two heat
exchangers which are mentioned above. Typical mass
flow rate of ram air is two or three times bigger than
bleed air.
Because of hot bled air (350 to 450 K) is always input
to the air cycle machine, the air cycle machine must
always cool this input this input to feed the cabin at
-2°C in the worst cooling case or at 42°C in the worst
heating case.
II.2. Equations
For steady state conditions, the points which are
illustrated at Figure 1;
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
and for the change of entropy,
(10)
(11)
III. Results and discussions
The bleed air is separated to 2.1 and 2.2 and these
points have mass flow rates of 0.4 and 0.6 kg.s-1
respectively. Likewise, at the points of 3.1 and 3.2 air
have mass flow rates of 0.243 and 0.757 kg.s-1
respectively. According to mass flow rates, pressure
values of the air are 229.8 kPa, 91.92 kPa, 137.88 kPa,
71.52 kPa, 209.4 kPa, 50.584 kPa, 91.512 kPa and
71.512 kPa at the points of 2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3, 3.1, C
and T, respectively. The exergy supplied to the air
 7th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium

cycle machine is 235.392 kW and 75,941 kW of it

destructed during air cycle process.
References
Table 1. Exergy flow diagram of air cycle machine Zhao H., Hou Y., Zhu Y., Chen L., Chen S., Experimental
Point T h s X study on the performance of an aircraft environmental control
system, Applied Thermal Engineering, 29, 3284–3288,
1 478.15 480.593 0.35 235.392 (2009).
2 453.15 454.704 0.319 216.296 Perez-Grande I., Leo T.J., Optimization of a commercial
aircraft environmental control system, Applied Thermal
2.1 453.15 454.704 0.581 63.656 Engineering, 22, 1885-1904, (2002).
2.2 453.15 454.704 0,466 110,537 Leo T.J., Perez-Grande I., A thermoeconomic analysis of a
2.3 277.7 277.83 0.158 29.817 commercial aircraft environmental control system, Applied
Thermal Engineering, 25, 309-325, (2005).
3 383.15 383.954 0.524 100.825 Bejan A., Fundamentals of exergy analysis, entropy
3.1 373.15 373.854 0.265 35.775 generation minimization, and the generation of flow
C 483.15 485.718 0.648 42.655 architecture, International Journal of Energy Research, 26,
545-565, (2002).
T 373.15 373.854 0.457 25.598 Bejan A., Siems D.L., The need for exergy analysis and
thermodynamic optimization in aircraft development, Exergy,
IV. Conclusions an International Journal, 1, 14-24, (2001).
Evans A.B., The effects of compressor seventh-stage bleed
Exergy analysis for an air cycle machine is performed. air extraction on performance of the F100-PW-220
It is found that 235.392 kW exergy is supplied from the afterburning turbofan engine, Contractor Report 179447,
engine to the air cycle machine. At the first heat NASA, Ames Research Center, Edwards, CA, (1991).
exchanger, there is 33.838 kW of exergy destruction Zilio C., Patricelli L., Aircraft anti-ice system: evaluation of
and while air splits into the point 2.1 and 2.2, there is system performance with a new time dependent
exergy destruction rate of 42.103 kW. The biggest mathematical model, Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol.63,
amount of exerg is destructed at the secondary heat 40-51, (2014).
exchanger with the amount of 55.62 kW.

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