Aircraft refrigeration systems

Presented by
Shikha Bhuyan
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Tezpur University
 Topics to be covered
 Requirement of cooling in airplanes
 Why use air cycles
 Types of airplane refrigeration systems
 Simple refrigeration system
 With evaporative cooling
 Without evaporative cooling
 Bootstrap refrigeration system
 With evaporative cooling
 Without evaporative cooling
 Regenerative refrigeration system
 Reduced ambient refrigeration system
 Dry air rated temperature (DART)
 Irreversibilities in aircraft refrigeration systems
 Requirement of cooling in airplanes

• Ramming of air
• Solar radiation
• Pressure of air inside the cabin
• Control devices
• Heat released from occupents
 Why air cycle??
Air cycle systems have specific advantages that apply to all potential applications:
• The working fluid (air) is free, environmentally benign, safe and non-toxic
• Air cycle equipment is extremely reliable, reducing maintenance costs
• The performance of an air cycle unit does not deteriorate as much as that of a vapour-
compression unit when operating away from its design point
• When operating in a refrigeration cycle, an air cycle unit can also produce heat at a useful
temperature. If this is used together with the cooling, highly efficient, low energy processes
are possible Food Refrigeration & Process Engineering Research Centre
• Air cycle units can produce a much higher temperature difference between the hot and cold
sides compared to vapour-compression units.
This means that:
1. Very cold air can be produced for near-cryogenic processes
2. Heat can be produced at a useful temperature, which, if used together with the
cooling, can result in highly efficient, low energy processes
 Advantages and disadvantages of air
refrigeration systems
Advantages
 No cost of refrigerant involved, quite cheap
 Main compressor of gas turbine is used
 Chilled air is directly used for cooling
 Minor leakage is not a problem
 Low pressure in the system
 W/ton of refrigeration is very less
 Air is non-toxic and non-flammable
 Refrigeration system is light in weight
Disadvantages
 Low COP
 Sensible heating of refrigerant
 Freezing of moisture
Reversed Brayton cycle (or Bell-
Coleman or Joule cycle)
Simple air refrigeration system
(Without evaporative cooling)
Contd…

• Process 1-2: Ramming of air

• Process 2-3: Compression in main compressor
• Process 3-4: Cooling of ram air in heat exchanger
• Process 4-5: Expansion in turbine
• Process 5-6: Air getting heated to cabin
temperature
Simple air refrigeration system
(With evaporative cooling)
Bootstrap air refrigeration system
(Without evaporative cooling)
Contd…
• Process 1-2: Ramming of air
• Process 2-3: Compression of air in main compressor
• Process 3-4: Cooling of compressed air by ram air
• Process 4-5: Compression of air in secondary compressor
• Process 5-6: Cooling of compressed air by ram air in secondary heat exchanger
• Process 6-7: Expansion in cooling turbine (to cabin pressure)
• Process 7-8: Air getting heated to cabin temperature

If Q tonnes of refrigeration is the cooling load in the cabin, then quantity of air
required for refrigeration purpose will be:
14000 × 𝑄
𝑚𝑎 = 𝑘𝑔/ℎ
𝐶𝑃 (𝑇8 − 𝑇7 )
Power required for the refrigeration system:
𝑚𝑎 ×𝑐𝑝 ×(𝑇3 −𝑇2 )
𝑃= kW
3600
COP of the refrigeration system:
14000×𝑄
COP=
𝑃×3600
Bootstrap air refrigeration system
(With evaporative cooling)
Regenerative air refrigeration system
Contd…
• Process 1-2: Ramming of air
• Process 2-3: Compression of air in main compressor
• Process 3-4: Cooling of compressed air by ram air in the primary heat exchange
• Process 4-5: Cooling of air in regenerative heat exchanger
• Process 5-6: Expansion in the cooling turbine
• Process 6-7: Air getting heated to cabin temperature
If Q tonnes of refrigeration is the cooling load in the cabin, then quantity of air required for refrigeration
purpose will be:
14000 × 𝑄
𝑚𝑎 = 𝑘𝑔/ℎ
𝐶𝑃 (𝑇7 − 𝑇6 )
Energy balance of regenerative heat exchanger:
𝑚1 = total mass of air bled from the main compressor
𝑚2 = mass of cold air bled from the cooling turbine for regenerative heat exchanger
For the energy balance of renerative heat exchanger, we have:
𝑚2 × 𝑐𝑝 × 𝑇8 − 𝑇6 = 𝑚1 × 𝑐𝑝 × 𝑇4 − 𝑇5
𝑚1 × 𝑇8 −𝑇6
𝑚2 =
𝑇4 −𝑇5
Where, 𝑇8 = Temperature of air leaving to atm from the regenerative heat exchanger
Power required for the refrigeration system:
𝑚𝑎 ×𝑐𝑝 ×(𝑇3 −𝑇2 )
𝑃= kW
3600
COP of the refrigeration system:
14000×𝑄
COP=
𝑃×3600
Reduced-ambient refrigeration system
Contd…
• Process 1-2: Ramming of air
• Process 2-3: Compression in the main compressor
• Process 3-4:Cooling of compressed air by ram air in the first turbine
• Process 4-5:Expansion of air in the second turbine
• Process 5-6:Heating of air upto cabin temperature
If Q tonnes of refrigeration is the cooling load in the cabin, then quantity
of air required for refrigeration purpose will be:
14000 × 𝑄
𝑚𝑎 = 𝑘𝑔/ℎ
𝐶𝑃 (𝑇6 − 𝑇5 )
Power required for the refrigeration system:
𝑚𝑎 ×𝑐𝑝 ×(𝑇3 −𝑇2 )
𝑃= kW
3600
COP of the refrigeration system:
14000×𝑄
COP=
𝑃×3600
Dry air rated temperature(DART)
Contd…

• DART is the index used to compare different aircraft cooling systems

• It is defined as “the temperature of air at the exit of the cooling turbine
in the absence of any moisture condensation”
• Aircraft refrigeration systems are based on mass flow rate of air and
the refrigerating capacity=m × 𝑐𝑝 (𝑇 − 𝐷𝐴𝑅𝑇)
A comparision of different aircraft refrigerating systems based on DART at
different Mach no. shows that:
1. DART increases monotonically for all systems except reduced ambient
system.
2. Simple system is good at low Mach no.
3. At high Mach nos. either bootstrap or regenerative systems should be
used.
4. Reduced ambient system is good for supersonic aircraft.