Modeling and Aircraft-Level Assessment of Thermal Management System for Battery Hybrid Electric Commercial Transport

Electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) concepts offer promising solutions in meeting aggressive environmental and fuel usage reduction goals. However, EAP systems generate a significant amount of heat that cannot be easily dissipated, presenting a substantial challenge in thermal management. In this paper, a thermal management system (TMS) architecture is parametrically modeled and integrated onto a hybrid-electric aircraft turbofan model as part of NASA's Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration program. Both semi-empirical methods and physics-based methods are employed to size TMS components. The component weight, drag penalty, and secondary power offtake are integrated into aircraft-level weights, aerodynamics, and propulsion analyses, and their impacts on aircraft performance are captured through mission analysis. A parametric sweep on select vehicle hybridization factor is performed to quantify their impacts on TMS-level and aircraft-level metrics. A sensitivity study was also performed, for a range of hybridization levels for a selected vehicle model, showing overall vehicle-level impacts of including TMS in the modeling of hybrid electric vehicles.