Roshan Bhojwani | rbhojwani@hotmail.

com | 2012

PMDG 737NGX GroundWork Air Systems

Air Conditioning System

Lesson Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Air Conditioning System lesson in the PMDG 737 Next Generation
GroundWork, from Angle of Attack.

This lesson will cover the following topics:

- Air Conditioning system overview,

- Air conditioned air distribution,
- Air conditioning compartments,
- Mix manifold description,
- Air conditioning packs and airflow control,
- Cooling cycle and water separation,
- Recirculation system,
- Ventilation system,
- Equipment cooling system,
- Lesson summary.

Air Conditioning System Overview

The air conditioning system is made up of an enormous amount of interfaces and mechanisms
that control the interior environment of the 737NG for passengers, flight crew and electronic
equipment. In this lesson, our discussion is going to cover a basic explanation of how most of
these systems operate, and how does the flight crew control them.

Essentially, the air conditioning system performs the following functions:

It produces fresh conditioned airflow for air pressurization and ventilation,

Controls the flight compartment and passenger cabin temperatures,
Recirculates around 50% of the cabin air for ventilation purposes,
Removes unpleasant air from lavatories and galleys.

For air conditioning purposes, the 737NG cabin is divided into three zones:

Flight compartment/Flight deck,

Forward (FWD) passenger compartment,
AFT passenger compartment.

Conditioned air may come from either of the following sources:

Ground (GND) supplied pre-conditioned air,

Recirculation system,
Air conditioning packs.

All sources supply their conditioned air to a main distribution manifold, also known as the mix
manifold. This essentially acts as a giant pool that collects conditioned air from all sources and
supplies it to the respective cabin sections that require air conditioning.

The air conditioning packs supply cool conditioned air at one specific temperature that is in
accordance with the coldest of the three cabin zones. Because of this, the other two cabin
zones may end up being colder than they need to be. To counter this condition, the other two
cabin zones are precisely fed with warmer air to bring the zone air temperature up to the
desired limit. This warm air is known as trim air.

We will talk about all these systems and components progressively. Let’s start with the air
conditioning distribution system.

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Air Conditioning Distribution

The air conditioning distribution system is in charge of supplying conditioned air to the three
airplane zones and to electronic equipment for cooling purposes. The flight deck zone is
provided of a constant supply of fresh air and the passenger cabin zones – FWD and AFT, are
provided of fresh air and recirculated air. Electronic equipment is cooled with fans that move air
around the equipment.

Conditioned air from all the sources is mixed and collected within the mix manifold. The sources
are:

Left and Right Air Conditioning packs,

Ground (GND) supplied pre-conditioned air,
Recirculation system.

There is also a ventilation system that takes advantage of pressure differences to extract air
from the 737NG’s lavatories and galleys. This process is briefly discussed further along this
lesson.

The flight deck is supplied with conditioned air from the left air conditioning pack. If the left pack
becomes inoperative, the flight deck automatically receives conditioned air from the right pack.
Flight deck temperature may be selected different than the passenger cabin, with the CONT
CAB Temperature selector, that has two positions:

AUTO: Temperature is automatically controlled. If the selector is rotated towards C or

W, which are Cool and Warm respectively, manual temperature control is engaged.

OFF: The flight deck trim air valve is closed and the temperature controls produce air to
supply a 24ºC demand. Trim air will be soon discussed in this lesson.

The FWD and AFT passenger compartments are supplied with air from the mix manifold. From
the mix manifold, conditioned air flows through rising ducts and up sidewalls to an overhead
distribution duct that effectively distributes air symmetrically in the cabin. The passenger cabin
compartment’s temperature may also be controlled with the related FWD and AFT CAB
Temperature selectors. These have the same positions as the CONT CAB selectors.

All three cabin selectors have a range that is approximately 18ºC to 30ºC. They are also
associated to three ZONE TEMP lights that illuminate when:

There is FWD or AFT CAB duct temperature overheat, or

There is a CONT CAB duct temperature overheat, or
There is failure of the flight deck primary and standby temperature controls.

The primary and standby temperature controllers are electronic units that control the pack
temperature control valves to satisfy the conditioned air demand. There is a primary and a
standby controller to provide system redundancy, so, if a primary temperature control fails, the
standby control assumes authority immediately. When this occurs, the PACK light illuminates in
the air conditioning panel, and there is also a MASTER CAUTION and an AIR COND system
annunciator.

If both the primary and standby temperature controls fail for the same pack, the same alerts will
display and the pack will still continue to operate, but without any form of temperature control.
When the condition that caused the PACK light to illuminate has been corrected, the TRIP
RESET switch must be pressed in the air conditioning overhead panel to bring the system back
to normal operation. TRIP RESET is also discussed in the Bleed Air lesson.

Now, we have mentioned the word pack a few times already in this lesson. What exactly are the
packs? Let’s discuss a bit about what they do and how they take warm air, cool it, and deliver it
to the mix manifold.

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Air Conditioning Packs, Airflow Control & Cooling Cycle

Packs are very ambiguously discussed in the 737NG documentation; however, the word pack is
actually an acronym for:

Pressurization, and
Air
Conditioning
Kit.

Essentially, the two packs on the 737NG are small air compressors that take bleed air from the
engines, after which the air is cooled, filtered and delivered to the flight deck and FWD and AFT
passenger cabins for temperature control. Bleed air is extensively discussed in the Air Systems
Bleed Air lesson, but essentially, it is highly compressed, high temperature, high pressure air
that is extracted from the engine compression stage for pneumatic power.

Both packs form part of the cooling process, which performs the following functions:

It regulates bleed air demand from the pneumatic manifold towards the air conditioning
packs,
Removes excessive heat from air entering the packs,
Controls the temperature and humidity levels of the air that exits the packs.

Moving on, bleed air passes through a flow control valve that regulates bleed air flow according
to pack demand. The flow valve is controlled by the AIR CONDITIONING PACK switches in the
forward overhead panel. There is one switch per engine and both have the following positions:

OFF,
AUTO,
HIGH.

The operation logic is simple: When both packs are operative and their switches are in the
AUTO position, the packs provide air flow under normal conditions. Naturally, if one pack fails,
the other pack automatically switches to high air flow to supply the demand for conditioned air
and ventilation. This protection mechanism is only available during flight when the trailing edge
flaps are in the UP position. Similarly, like in the case of a bleeds-off takeoff where both engine
bleed switches are OFF and the APU is supplying pneumatic power, the packs deliver high air
flow regardless of any flight parameter. For a detailed explanation of the bleeds-off takeoff
procedure, watch the 737NG Linework Bleeds-Off lesson!

After the flow control stage, air passes through a heat exchanger where ram air cools down the
bleed air. Ram air is external dynamic air that enters the aircraft through a ram air inlet door.
When the aircraft is moving slowly, such as during slow flight, low air density or ground
operations, the ram air inlet door opens to its fully open position to maximize air intake. When
this occurs, a RAM DOOR FULL OPEN light illuminates in blue color in the forward overhead
panel. Under normal circumstances, the door automatically varies between the open and closed
position.

Once the initial heat exchanging has taken place, air passes through an Air Cycle Machine that
compresses, refrigerates, and sends the air it to a second heat exchanger that also cools down
the compressed air with the use of ram air. Afterwards, compressed cool air passes through
either of two water extraction ducts where water in the airstream is condensed and falls into a
sump where it is drained. It is important to keep air free from moisture to minimize the risk of
icing at low temperatures.

QUICK TIP: All the collected water from the air conditioning pack water extractors is
ducted and sprayed into the ram air inlet so that, by evaporation, the ram air stream
becomes cooler and therefore more efficient in the heat exchange process.

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Once the air has passed through all these stages, it has already been conditioned, cooled and
is now ready for distribution into the aircraft zones. From the packs to the main distribution, or
mix, manifold, a valve opens to allow the conditioned air to flow in that direction.

Air from the packs is delivered at one constant, fairly cold, temperature. This temperature is
mostly unsuitable for the comfort of passengers and flight crew therefore some form of warmer
air must be mixed into the conditioned pack air.

This warm air is known as trim air, because it essentially trims the pack air temperature to make
it more comfortable. The trim air pressure is regulated for the Flight deck, FWD passenger cabin
and AFT passenger cabin. It may also be shutoff by the trim air switch in the air conditioning
panel, which has the following positions:

ON: The trim air PRSOV opens and each individual cabin zone trim air valve is enabled.
OFF: The trim air PRSOV closed and each individual cabin zone trim air valve is
disabled.

Trim air is extracted from the bleed air that passes through the flow control valve we mentioned
earlier, and is ducted towards three trim air valves, one in each cabin zone.

In simple terms, the packs deliver one air temperature according to the coldest cabin zone. Trim
air heats up the other two cabin zones to increase their temperature to the desired automatic
temperature of 24ºC.

QUICK TIP: Pilots often wonder why is warm bleed air cooled by the refrigerators and
then mixed again with hot trim air to deliver it to the cabin, as it seems to be an
inefficient process. Turns out, it is actually easier and more efficient to run the packs by
delivering a constant cold output temperature and then adding warm trim air as required
to maintain a comfortable cabin temperature. Even modern aircraft like the Boeing B787
maintain a similar air conditioning architecture.

Moving on, air in the flight deck is 100% fresh air from the left air conditioning pack. Air in the
passenger FWD and AFT cabin is a mixture of fresh air from the right air conditioning pack, the
mix manifold and a certain amount of air that is recirculated within the cabin. We will now
discuss a little bit about the recirculation process and its function.

Recirculation System

The recirculation system supplies air for ventilation to the passenger cabins by collecting cabin
air and mixing it with pack air in the main distribution manifold. The whole recirculation system’s
objective is to reduce the demand for fresh air from the pneumatic system, or engine bleed
system, and from the air conditioning packs.

All the recirculated air is pulled through an air filter to remove very small particulates, bacteria
and microorganisms.
Recirculation is achieved with a Left and a Right recirculation fan. These are operated with the L
& R RECIRC FAN switches in the air conditioning panel. These switches have the following
positions:

OFF: The recirculation fans are off.

AUTO: The recirculation fans are controlled automatically, according to the following
logic.

AUTO recirculation operation has two modes: Ground, and In-Flight.

On the ground, the right recirculation fan operates constantly and if both air conditioning pack
switches are HIGH, the left recirculation fan operates too.

During flight, the left and right recirculation fans operate while both air conditioning packs are
operative.

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Air from both fans passes through a recirculation fan check valve that prevents any form of
leakage or loss of conditioned air back into the mix manifold, from the recirculation system.

Moving on, we’ve seen that recirculation is a fairly straightforward process. Another system we’ll
briefly talk about is the Ventilation system. As we mentioned earlier during this lesson, the
ventilation system removes unpleasant air from both the galleys and lavatories in the passenger
cabin.

By creating a pressure differential, air always from where there is high, to where there is low air
pressure, thus creating a form of suction. The ventilation system takes advantage of this
principle and ducts all the unpleasant air out of the airplane.

Equipment cooling system

During this lesson we’ve extensively talked about air conditioning, cooling, ventilation and
recirculation in the three 737NG cabin zones, which are the Flight Deck, FWD and AFT cabins,
however, not only does the air conditioning system provide cool air for those areas.

Electronic equipment near the flight deck can get very, very hot sometimes! Because these
systems are important, for example to present data on the flight crew’s display units, they must
be kept cool and free from the risk of overheating.

For this purpose, the air conditioning system also has an equipment cooling system designed to
remove heat from the electronic components near both the flight deck, and the electronic
equipment bay located slightly aft and under the flight deck section.

You've probably seen something similar in a PC or Laptop, with fans that draw air across the
internal components, simply to cool it down. Although this system is more complex than that, it's
the same general idea.

Essentially, the equipment cooling system is simply made up of an air supply system that takes
cool air to the electronic equipment, and an air exhaust system that removes the warm air. As a
protection mechanism, both the supply and exhaust systems contain two fans respectively:
Normal and Alternate fan. The related fans are operated with the EQUIP COOLING SUPPLY or
EXHAUST switches, located in the forward overhead panel. Both switches have the following
positions:

NORM: Normal supply/exhaust fans are operational.

ALTN: The alternate supply/exhaust fans have been activated.

How does one know when to switch between both fan types for either the supply or exhaust
system? The answer is, when the OFF light below each switch illuminates. This light comes on
to alert that there is little or no airflow from the selected fan for either supply or exhaust. When
the OFF light comes on for both fans, the airplane electrical systems must be partly shut down
to reduce the electric load and therefore bring the equipment temperature down. Together with
the OFF light, a MASTER CAUTION is presented along with the OVERHEAD light.

The presence of a master caution may surprise you, but keep in mind that if the the equipment
is left to overheat, it could potentially start a fire on the flightdeck. This is one of the worst
emergencies that can happen on an airliner, as an incapacitated pilot can't exactly operate the
aircraft safely, rendering all courses of action useless.

Lesson Summary

We’ve had a short, but very detailed lesson about the air conditioning system. Even though the
system is fairly complex and has a lot of interfaces, it’s important for you to understand properly
how to operate it. After all, you don’t want your Sim passengers to feel very hot during your
flights on the 737NGX.

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 Roshan Bhojwani | rbhojwani@hotmail.com | 2012

This lesson covered the following topics:

- Air Conditioning system overview,

- Air conditioned air distribution,
- Air conditioning compartments,
- Mix manifold description,
- Air conditioning packs and airflow control,
- Cooling cycle and water separation,
- Recirculation system,
- Ventilation system,
- Equipment cooling system,
- Lesson summary.

The following lesson will wrap up the Air Systems section, by talking about Cabin
Pressurization. Stay tuned! Until then… Throttle On!

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Angle of Attack © 2012