Vehicle Thermal Control with a Variable Area Inlet.

Abstract

This study developed a variable area inlet and controller that regulated the temperature of an electrical component with ram air. The intent of the variable area inlet was to reduce vehicle drag by eliminating inefficiencies associated with component cooling and fixed area inlets. These inefficiencies arise from vehicles moving at varying speeds through varying air temperatures. The hardware model consisted of an electrical component mounted inside a right-circular cylindrical duct. The variable area inlet, mounted in the front of the duct, consisted of a butterfly valve that was actuated by a stepper controller acted on the feedback signal of a thermocouple that was mounted on the electrical component. The system was successful in regulating the component temperature. A nonlinear simulation model was built and the thermal plant in the simulation was based on the electrical components empirically derived Nusselt number. Proportional, Proportional-Derivative (PD), and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers were built and tested. The PD and PID controllers did not appear to need any gain scheduling for the varying speed and temperature conditions. Lastly, a general design process was detailed. (AN)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1995
Accession Number
ADA303215

Entities

People

  • Thomas R. Layne

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Actuators
  • Closed Loop Systems
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Energy
  • Energy Transfer
  • Engineering
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • Low Temperature
  • Measurement
  • Open Loop Systems
  • Pressure Transducers
  • Steady State
  • Surface Properties
  • Wind Tunnels

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Robotics and Automation.