Study on Multi-Heat-Source Thermal Management of Hypersonic Vehicle Based on sCO<sub>2</sub> Brayton Cycle

To address the thermal protection challenges of multiple high-temperature components and the electrical power deficiency in hypersonic vehicles, this study proposes twelve multi-heat-source thermoelectric conversion schemes based on the sCO<sub>2</sub> Brayton cycle. A three-dimensional...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xin Qi, Zhihong Zhou, Huoxing Liu, Zhongfu Tang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:Aerospace
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/12/7/575
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Summary:To address the thermal protection challenges of multiple high-temperature components and the electrical power deficiency in hypersonic vehicles, this study proposes twelve multi-heat-source thermoelectric conversion schemes based on the sCO<sub>2</sub> Brayton cycle. A three-dimensional evaluation system for thermal management is established, incorporating thermal efficiency, coolant mass flow rate, and system mass as key metrics. A comprehensive parameter sensitivity analysis was conducted on the twelve dual-heat-source cycle configurations. For systematic performance comparison, the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) was employed for multi-objective optimization, with Pareto fronts analyzed to determine optimal configurations. The results demonstrate that appropriately increasing the minimum cycle temperature can significantly reduce coolant flow requirements. Multi-objective optimization reveals the following: (1) The pre-compressed aero-comb configuration achieves optimal performance in the efficiency-mass flow rate optimization scenario; (2) Both pre-compressed aero-comb and re-compressed comb-aero configurations show superiority in the efficiency-mass optimization scenario; (3) The pre-compressed aero-comb configuration exhibits lower system mass in low coolant flow regions for the mass flow rate-mass optimization scenario. Overall, the performance of the precompression aero-comb configuration is relatively superior. This work provides an important reference for the design of thermal management systems for hypersonic vehicles.
ISSN:2226-4310