Assessment of Aircraft Surface Heat Exchanger Potential

Providing sufficient cooling power for an aircraft will become increasingly challenging with the introduction of (hybrid-) electric propulsion. To avoid excessive drag from heat exchangers, the heat sink potential of the aircraft surface is evaluated in this study. Semi-empirical correlations are used to estimate aircraft surface area and heat transfer. The impact of surface heating on aircraft drag is qualitatively assessed. Locating surface heat exchangers where fully turbulent flow is present promises a decrease in aircraft drag. Surface cooling potential is investigated over a range from small regional aircraft to large wide body jets and a range of surface temperatures. Four mission points are considered: Take-off, hot day take-off, climb and cruise. The results show that surface heat exchangers can provide cooling power in the same order of magnitude as the waste heat expected from (hybrid-) electric drive trains for all sizes of considered aircraft. Also, a clear trend favouring smaller aircraft with regards to the ratio of available to required cooling power is visible.