Abstract
Thermal Management Systems (TMS) have been identified as one of the limiting factors in the design of future aircraft. A PCM heat exchanger could be added to TMS to help relieve the heat load on current technologies in aircraft. To date, compact PCM heat exchangers adapted for the use in aerospace have received limited attention in the literature. In this work, an effectiveness-NTU model for a PCM compact heat exchanger is proposed based on a simplified Stefan condition which could be used for the initial sizing of the PCM heat exchanger based on a given thermal loading profile. This approach significantly reduces the computational expense of the model when compared to solving the Stefan condition in an ODE system, while still accounting for the melting/solidification cycle length. As such, it is possible to directly obtain realistic dimensions for the PCM channel for a non-finned case from the model. Results show good energy conservation, which builds confidence in the model, and similar trends are observed to what has previously been described in CFD studies and experimental results.