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Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (1): 632007.doi: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2025.32007

• Special Topic: The 27th Annual Meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

New waste heat recovery thermal management configurations and applications for helicopters

Pinggen LUO1, Bin LI1, Huaji WANG1(), Xingping LI1, Wenqing XIA2   

  1. 1.China Helicopter Research and Development Institute,Jingdezhen 333001,China
    2.College of Aerospace Engineering,Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,Nanjing 210016,China
  • Received:2025-03-20 Revised:2025-04-07 Accepted:2025-05-22 Online:2025-06-05 Published:2025-05-30
  • Contact: Huaji WANG E-mail:wanghj002@avic.com
  • Supported by:
    National Level Project

Abstract:

To address the need for improved energy utilization efficiency in advanced helicopters and the inadequate temperature adaptability of onboard evaporative cycle systems, an Energy Management System (EMS) method based on the coupling of Environmental Control System (ECS) and Lubrication Oil Systems (LOS) is proposed. In cold weather conditions (outside air temperature ≤-5 ℃), the onboard evaporative cycle system often fails to heat effectively due to incomplete refrigerant evaporation. In hot weather at high altitudes (outside air temperature<20 ℃), frequent defrosting negatively impacts cabin thermal comfort. Based on the configuration characteristics of helicopter ECS, two new Thermal Management System (TMS) architectures were developed: a single-cooling frost-free system and a wide-temperature-range frost-free system. Laboratory tests and AMESIM simulation analyses showed that the single-cooling frost-free TMS can achieve frost-free cooling throughout the entire flight altitude envelope of the helicopter, while the wide-temperature-range frost-free TMS can provide frost-free cooling and heating across the entire flight altitude and temperature envelope (outside air temperature ≥-40 ℃). This research allows the ECS to operate independently of engine bleed air, effectively saving engine power, and verifies the feasibility of stepwise utilization technology for waste heat recovery from the LOS, demonstrating significant engineering application value.

Key words: helicopter, energy management, thermal management, environmental control system, lubrication oil system, frost-free, waste heat recovery

CLC Number: