ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA >
Design and optimization of dual-temperature collaborative architecture for multi-mode aircraft thermal management system
Received date: 2025-12-01
Revised date: 2025-12-15
Accepted date: 2026-01-28
Online published: 2026-02-03
Supported by
National Natural Science Foundation of China(52476066)
The thermal management system of contemporary aircraft necessitates meticulous regulation in a multi-modal， multi-objective operational environment. This study introduces an adaptive fuel thermal management system designed to achieve synergistic control of dual target temperatures for fuel and airframe skin under highly dynamic thermal loads. Through the co-optimization of physical-layer thermal pathway reconfiguration and control-layer adaptive refinement， the system demonstrates superior transient performance during transitions between stealth and non-stealth operational modes. At the physical-layer level， the system employs a reconfigurable three-way valve architecture to establish both open-loop and closed-loop heat dissipation pathways， effectively mitigating thermal load contention between fuel and skin. At the control-layer level， an embedded adaptive fuzzy PID algorithm facilitates dynamic decoupling of dual-temperature regulation via real-time modulation of compressor rotational velocity， electronic expansion valve aperture， and liquid cooling pump operational speed. High-fidelity dynamic simulations reveal that， relative to conventional PID control， the proposed adaptive thermal management system attains a 55 s reduction in fuel temperature settling time， accompanied by an 11.85% enhancement in transient response. The skin temperature stabilization duration is curtailed by 83 s， with a 23.38% improvement in dynamic performance. Furthermore， adaptive control significantly refines the actuation dynamics of critical components， minimizing mechanical dissipation and energy expenditure. The liquid cooling pump’s peak rotational velocity diminishes by 400 r/min， the compressor’s maximum speed declines by 700 r/min， and the electronic expansion valve’s overshoot in aperture modulation is reduced by 15.1%. This synergistic integration of physical-layer decoupling and control-layer optimization furnishes a robust and efficient thermal management paradigm for next-generation aircraft， ensuring operational resilience in complex and evolving combat scenarios.
Shengnan JI , Qing AI , Pengda GUAN , Meng LIU , Yong SHUAI . Design and optimization of dual-temperature collaborative architecture for multi-mode aircraft thermal management system[J]. ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA, 2026 , 47(13) : 633166 -633166 . DOI: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2026.33166
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