Comparison of novel environmental control systems in aircrafts based on a vapor compression cycle

摘要

The environmental control systems (ECS) of commercial aircrafts are currently based on apneumatically driven air cycle. The achievable COP is significantly lower compared to a vaporcompression cycle. Furthermore, the usage of bleed air is critical due to new engines with highbypass ratios and potential health risks to the passengers.Therefore new approaches for ECS with a vapor compression cycle are investigated. The differenttechnology paths comprise pneumatically and electrically driven systems, as well as the utilizationof cabin exhaust air.Seven novel ECS are compared to a reference system in respect of energy efficiency and totaladditional fuel consumption. This investigation includes the design process and the calculationmodels of the new ECS with detailed heat exchanger and turbo-machine models.The results show a significant reduction in fuel consumption of the ECS to a minimum of 20% inground cases and 40% in flight cases compared to the reference system. The overall fuelconsumption of the aircraft can be decreased up to 1.8%.