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US 10,815,906 B2Granted
Systems and methods for fuel-based thermal management
AssigneeRaytheon Technologies Corporation
InventorsLeo J. Veilleux, Jr., Lubomir A. Ribarov
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuel-based thermal management system may comprise a heat exchanger configured to thermally couple a fluid and a fuel. A controller may be configured to modulate a flow of the fluid to the heat exchanger. A tangible, non-transitory memory may be configured to communicate with the controller. The controller may determine a temperature of the fluid, estimate a dissolved oxygen concentration in the fuel using a first fuel temperature, a flight cycle time, and at least one of an altitude measurement or a ambient pressure measurement, and modulate the flow of the fluid to the heat exchanger based on the dissolved oxygen concentration.
Claims20
A method of fuel-based thermal management for a gas turbine engine, comprising:
- receiving, by a controller, a fluid temperature of a flow of a fluid from a fluid temperature sensor upstream of a heat exchanger, the heat exchanger configured to thermally couple the fluid to a fuel;
- receiving, by the controller, a first fuel temperature from a first fuel temperature sensor upstream of the heat exchanger;
- receiving, by the controller, a flight cycle time;
- receiving, by the controller, at least one of an altitude measurement or an ambient pressure measurement;
- receiving, by the controller, a dissolved oxygen concentration measurement from an oxygen sensor configured to measure a dissolved oxygen concentration of the fuel;
- determining, by the controller, an updated dissolved oxygen concentration using the dissolved oxygen concentration measurement received from the oxygen sensor, the first fuel temperature, the flight cycle time, and the at least one of the altitude measurement or the ambient pressure measurement;
- determining, by the controller, whether a thermal load from the fluid can be deposited into the fuel based on the determining the updated dissolved oxygen concentration of the fuel;
- and
- modulating, by the controller, the flow of the fluid to the heat exchanger based on the determining, by the controller, whether the thermal load from the fluid can be deposited into the fuel.
6 more elements
A fuel-based thermal management system, comprising:
- a heat exchanger configured to thermally couple a fluid and a fuel;
- a controller configured to modulate a flow of the fluid to the heat exchanger;
- and
- a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the controller, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the controller, cause the controller to perform operations comprising:
- determining, by the controller, a temperature of the fluid;
- receiving, by the controller, a dissolved oxygen concentration measurement from an oxygen sensor configured to measure a dissolved oxygen concentration of the fuel;
- receiving, by the controller, a first fuel temperature from a first fuel temperature sensor upstream of the heat exchanger;
- determining, by the controller, an updated dissolved oxygen concentration using the dissolved oxygen concentration measurement received from the oxygen sensor, the first fuel temperature, a flight cycle time, and at least one of an altitude measurement or an ambient pressure measurement;
- and
- modulating, by the controller, the flow of the fluid to the heat exchanger based on the updated dissolved oxygen concentration of the fuel.
7 more elements
A fuel-based thermal management system for a gas turbine engine, comprising:
- a fuel-fluid heat exchange system comprising:
- a heat exchanger configured to thermally couple a fluid received from a heat source and a fuel received from a fuel source, and
- a valve configured to regulate a flow of the fluid to the heat exchanger;
- a controller in operable communication with the valve;
- and
- a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the controller, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the controller, cause the controller to perform operations comprising:
- determining, by the controller, whether a temperature of the fluid is above a predetermined fluid temperature threshold;
- receiving, by the controller, a dissolved oxygen concentration measurement from an oxygen sensor configured to measure a dissolved oxygen concentration of the fuel output by the fuel source;
- receiving, by the controller, a first fuel temperature from a first fuel temperature sensor upstream of the heat exchanger;
- determining, by the controller, an updated dissolved oxygen concentration using the dissolved oxygen concentration measurement received from the oxygen sensor, the first fuel temperature, a flight cycle time, and at least one of an altitude measurement or an ambient pressure measurement;
- and
- modulating, by the controller, the flow of the fluid to the heat exchanger based on the updated dissolved oxygen concentration.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.