Modeling and Design Optimization of an Electric Environmental Control System for Commercial Passenger Aircraft

The aircraft environmental control system (ECS) is the second-highest fuel consumer system, behind the propulsion system. To reduce fuel consumption, one research direction intends to replace conventional aircraft with more electric aircraft. Thus, new electric architectures have to be designed for each system, such as for the ECS. In this paper, an electric ECS is modeled and then sized and optimized for different sizing scenarios with the aim of minimizing fuel consumption at the aircraft level. For the system and for each component, such as air inlets and heat exchangers, parametric models are developed to allow the prediction of relevant characteristics. These models, developed in order to be adapted to aircraft design issues, are of different types, such as scaling laws and surrogate models. They are then assembled to build a preliminary sizing procedure for the ECS by using a multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDAO) formulation. Results show that the ECS design is highly dependent on the sizing scenario considered. An approach to size the ECS globally with respect to all the sizing scenarios leads to an ECS that accounts for around 200 N of drag, 190 kW of electric power, and 1500 kg of mass for the CeRAS aircraft.

Automated summary

The aircraft environmental control system (ECS), as the second highest fuel consumer system after the propulsion system, can be optimized to minimize fuel consumption by designing new electric architectures for each system. This paper presents a modeling and optimization approach for an electric ECS, considering different sizing scenarios. Parametric models, including scaling laws and surrogate models, are developed for the system and each component to predict relevant characteristics. The results show that the ECS design is highly dependent on the sizing scenario considered, with the globally sized ECS for the CeRAS aircraft accounting for around 200 N of drag, 190 kW of electric power, and 1500 kg of mass.