Engine assembly with heat management system
AssigneePratt & Whiiney Canada Corp.
InventorsSebastien Bergeron, Etienne Plamondon, Andre Julien
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Abstract
There is disclosed an engine assembly for an aircraft, including: a combustion engine including a coolant circuit in heat exchange relationship with a heat sink, the heat sink including a heat exchanger and at least one component, the at least one component having a main function that differs from thermal exchange. A method of operating the system is also disclosed.
Claims20
An engine assembly for an aircraft, comprising:
- a combustion engine;
- a coolant circuit, the combustion engine in heat exchange relationship with a heat sink via the coolant circuit, the heat sink including a heat exchanger and at least one further component of the engine assembly, the at least one further component having a main function that differs from thermal exchange and is distinct from the combustion engine, a conduit of the coolant circuit wrapped around the at least one further component, the conduit in heat exchange relationship with the at least one further component;
- and a valve having a first mode in which the conduit of the coolant circuit is fluidly connected to a remainder of the coolant circuit and a second mode in which the conduit of the coolant circuit is disconnected from the remainder of the coolant circuit, the valve being in the first mode when the combustion engine is powered off for cooling down the combustion engine, the valve being in the second mode when the combustion engine is powered on.
A method of operating a heat management system of an engine assembly for an aircraft, comprising:
- circulating a liquid coolant;
- transferring heat from a combustion engine of the engine assembly to the liquid coolant;
- shutting down the combustion engine;
- and
- transferring heat from the liquid coolant to an environment outside the engine assembly via both of a heat exchanger and a component whose main function differs from thermal exchange after the shutting down of the combustion engine, the component distinct from the combustion engine, the transferring of the heat to the environment via the component includes flowing the liquid coolant around the component thereby conductively transferring the heat from the liquid coolant to the component.
A method of operating a heat management system of an engine assembly for an aircraft, the engine assembly including a combustion engine being liquid cooled with a liquid coolant, the method comprising:
- determining that the combustion engine of the engine assembly is off;
- circulating the liquid coolant in a coolant circuit for heating the liquid coolant while the combustion engine is off;
- and
- circulating the heated liquid coolant around at least one component whose main function differs from thermal exchange for conductively transferring heat from the heated liquid coolant to the at least one component while the combustion engine is off, the component distinct from the combustion engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.