(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force)
Managing thermal challenges for future air vehicles
UDRI's Thermal Management scientists conduct applied and fundamental research in aircraft thermal management, phase change heat transfer, multiphase flows, fuel decomposition models, waste heat power recovery, and simulation of aircraft fuel systems, as well as other areas.
Much of our work involves large-scale testing of thermal management architectures to optimize aircraft sub-systems. In addition, we perform computational fluid dynamics simulations that incorporate phase change and chemical kinetics. We also have expertise in the modeling of heat transfer for high-speed vehicles.
We help our customers evaluate the feasibility and performance of thermal management architectures, specifically at early-to-middle technology readiness levels (TRL). We also help to answer fundamental questions regarding heat transfer and fluid dynamics in support of these systems.
Our customers include U.S. Department of Defense, primarily the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). We also partner with military and commercial aviation suppliers and other university-based research labs.
Capabilities
- Design, build, instrument, and test megawatt-scale thermal cycle systems
- Integrate high-speed compressors and turbines, pumps, valves, piping, and heat exchangers
- Manage various heat transfer fluids (water, glycol, oil, fuel surrogates, refrigerants)
- Multi-scale modeling of fluid and heat transfer systems and components
- High-speed flight thermal modeling
- Development of pseudo-detailed chemical kinetic models
- Various software tools supported, such as, Labview, SolidWorks, Ansys, Matlab, Python, etc.