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Transversal project: Unitary Operations

First Submission

Operation of air conditioning system on


commercial Airplanes
Stephanie Castaeda Sandoval, Juanita Hidalgo Manzano & Germn Pantoja Benavides
ABSTRACT
To maintain a proper temperature in a commercial airplane with many passengers traveling at high
altitudes represents an important and interesting engineering work. Airplanes air conditioning is a
system composed by the following equipment: a heat exchanger, a turbine, a ventilator, a bypass
valve turbine and a system of pimps where air flows and connects the units. Therefore, this project
intends to look into the correspondent unitary operations of the mentioned units and consequently to
the whole system. The main purpose was to study how unitary operations applied at more
complicated processes such as conditioning systems in aircrafts. The process analysed in this case
was the expansion of air due to the presence of a turbine intended to decrease its temperature. The
relation between the inlet pressure and the outlet pressure has to be of 8.824 in order to get the final
temperature desired. Hence, the turbine power needed to produce this pressure difference is 787.669
kW.
Key words: Air conditioning, commercial airplane
I. INTRODUCTION
Commercial airplanes fly with many passengers and at huge altitude, for example the airplane
Boeing 757 can transport 200 to 228 passengers and it flies over 42 000 feet (BOEING, 2015). It is
important to remark the temperature at this altitude is -56,5 C (Cavcar, 2005), so, the design of an
air conditioning of a commercial airplane represents a huge challenge for the conditions it has to
work. This design generally involves the air cycle or the vapor cycle and for that reason is important
to talk about these cycles. The first one is related with the heating and cooling of the air in different
zones and make it move by pressure application, all of this to maintain a comfortable thermal
environment in the cabin (Wei, Zhang, & Wang, 2015). In particular, the air cycle is used on most
turbine powered aircraft; it uses engine bleed air or the air cycle machine (APU) pneumatic air
during conditioning process (Federal Aviation Organization). On the other hand, the vapor cycle
involves the use of a refrigerant, the cycle cool the air by evaporation of the refrigerant (Hermes,
2015).
In this order of ideas, air conditioning system is necessary in aircrafts, because even though
temperature at high altitudes are extremely cold, bleed air from engine is extremely hot to be used
in the cabin without being cooled (Federal Aviation Organization). Therefore, aircraft airconditioning will be discussed in detail in this work. Describing deeply the main unitary operation
that governs this process. In general, it is evident that air conditioning systems is one of the most

important systems of the airplane because it is the main tool that allows humans to travel on
aircrafts and it also has great impact on the comfort of passengers. Hence, it is of great relevance to
study how this system works and how it is able to permit us all to travel on aircrafts.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS


General air conditioning system includes a heat exchanger, a turbine, a ventilator, a turbine bypass
valve (TBV) and a pimp system that connects all the units. The system in mention is shown in
figure 1.

Figure 1. Air conditioning system of a commercial airplane (FOROFRIO, s.f.) Air output: Bleed air
From figure1 the air conditioning system of a commercial airplane is evident. The impact air duct is
a pimp connected to a gate located on the outer surface of the plane. When the plane is in flight and
there is sufficient dynamic pressure, cold air gets into the duct through the gate. For that reason this
stream is called impact air (FOROFRIO, s.f.). The second equipment is the heat exchanger, it is
located in the duct and basically is a radiator. Hot and high pressure air (from the compressor
turbojet) circulates through it and the heat exchanger is covered with the cold impact air.
Another equipment includes two units, the turbine and the ventilator. The two units share the same
axis, consequently the both of them spin at the same velocity. The whole equipment extracts air
from the motor and conduces it to the heat exchanger and then to the cabin. Is important to remark
that the impact air does not get into the cabin, it only is used to cool the air from the motor.
The last equipment, the TBV, has a modulation or control function. The TVB is located on a duct
parallel to the heat exchanger one. For the motor air is easier to pass through out the TVB duct than
the other one, for that reason the TBV is part of a control system and it determines the temperature
of the cabin air. In this order of ideas, if the TVB is very open, the air flow from the motor prefers
to take the TVB duct than the other and consequently the air in the cabin would be hot. On the other
hand, if the TVB is more closed, the air flow from the motor gets into the heat exchanger duct and
then the air in the cabin would be cooler (FOROFRIO, s.f.).
Nevertheless, recalling that there are two types of air conditioning systems, the type of air
conditioning system that will be described is the air cycle. It is of great relevance then to define the

term bleed air to be able to understand and develop the process. According to the Merriam Webster
dictionary, bleed is a slow escape or admission of air provided for in a mechanical system. In this
case, bleed air is the engine air that has already entered the aircraft. Then, in general terms, air cycle
conditioning prepares engine bleed air to pressurize the aircraft cabin, meaning that temperature and
quantity of air must be controlled. This air cycle is often called air conditioning package and it is
usually located in the lower half of the airplane as showed in figure 2 (Federal Aviation
Organization). This image is a figure of a commercial airplane, Boeing 737.

Figure 2. Boeing 737 air cycle system (Federal Aviation Organization)


In general terms they operation system of this type of air conditioning consists in six main steps.
First, a heat exchanger to cool bleed air provided from the engine. Second, this cooled air is directed
into an air cycle machine. Third, air enters a compressor before entering a second heat exchanger to
be cooled again. Fourth, it enters an expansion turbine and cools even further. Fifth, water is
removed, air is mixed with bypassed bleed air for final temperature adjustment. Sixth and final, air
is sent to the cabin through a distribution system (Federal Aviation Organization).
The unitary operations of greatest interest are made by the compressor and the turbine. The heart
of the air cycle air conditioning system is the refrigeration turbine unit, also known as the air cycle
machine (ACM) (Federal Aviation Organization). This two equipment are in charged to change the
pressure from the air that wants to be cooled. Compressors augment air pressure, while turbines
decrease it. Figure 3 shows explicitly the compressor and turbine that allow air conditioning to take
place on aircrafts.

Figure 3. Diagram of an air cycle machine. The main housing supports the single shaft to which the
compressor and turbine are attached. (Federal Aviation Organization)
In brief, the air conditioning method was described in this section. It consists of unitary operations
that involve physical changes as changing temperature and pressure. Therefore, the equipment used
are heat exchangers, compressors, turbines, valves and others to cool air and distribute it through
the cabin and whole airplane and in this way satisfy passengers with a nice and comfortable
temperature.
III. PRELIMINARY RESULTS
As shown in previous sections of this work, the conditioning system in commercial planes takes
place due to a procedure involving different elements and equipment that allow the temperature and
composition of the air in the main and passengers cabin to maintain at viable conditions regardless
the altitude, temperature and pressure in which airplanes have to operate. In order to calculate the
turbine work per unit mass it is necessary to know the variation of pressure it will produce (P2/P1).
As established by Evgenia Sikorski (2010), the first air supply comes from air bleeding from an
engine that is continuously producing hot air at approximately 250C. Next, this current of air will
go through a series of processes in which it will be cooled thanks to atmosphere air at really low
temperatures and then expansion through the turbine so that it reaches a new temperature in the
range of 0-5C. This cooled air will be fed into a mixing unit along with some more of the air
bleeding to get a current of air at an approximate temperature of 21C. The objective is to find the

pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the turbine in order to get the temperature needed
before the mixing process.
Assuming that the expansion process is completely isentropic, no heat transfer with the
environment, it is possible to apply the next relation. As we are only taking into account the
expansion process, it is necessary to assume that the inlet temperature is going to be the air bleeding
temperature. This means that that the constant k for the air at approximately 500 K is going to be
1.378.

T 1 Z1
=
T 2 Z2

P1
P2

( )( )

1
k

(1)

As a result, the relation between the inlet pressure and the outlet pressure is 8.824. Now it is
possible to apply the next relation in which the turbine work can be calculated.

[( ) ]

P2
n
W =
RT1
n1
P1

n1
n

1 ( 2)

Where the constant n is going to be the same as k due to the fact that this is an isentropic process. In
this case, R has to be not in mole terms but in mass terms. This is why it has to be adjusted as
follows:

J
J
1 mol
mol K
mol K K
J
=8.314
=288.28
(3)
M W air
0.02884 kg
kg K

8.314
R=

Replacing the known values in Equation 2 it is possible to calculate the turbine work per mass unit.

W =236.301

kJ
( 4)
kg

According to Evgenia Sikorski (2010) the maximum required airflow is about 200 kg/min that is
equivalent to 3.33 kg/s. This value will be useful to find the power needed by this turbine to
produce the expansion required.

P=236.301

kJ
kg
3.33 =787.669 kW (5)
kg
s

.2)
P=W m(Ec

The power needed by aircraft turbines is in average 629 kW (Sikorski, 2010). For this reason it is
possible to say that the results given are logic. The difference might be that the inlet temperature is
higher than it really should be. This can be argued by the assumptions made earlier and because it
wasnt taken into account the heat transfer during the previous heat exchangers. Even though it is
possible to make further complete calculations including the heat transfer and the air currents
coming from the atmosphere in order to have more accurate results.

(Martinez, 2016)

IV.CONCLUSIONS
As it was shown, the conditioning system for an aircraft is very different than conventional
systems. This is why it has to be taken into account factors such as heat transfer between
different temperature inlets. The main purpose was to explain how unitary operations are
applied and in this case the expansion of the air was studied without any other alterations. It
is recommended for further works to apply physical concepts into the heat transfer in order
to acquire complete and more realistic results.
(ECS, 2014)
V. REFERENCES
BOEING. (2015). Boeing. Obtenido de
http://www.boeing.com/history/products/757.page
Cavcar, M. (2005). ANADOLU UNIVERSITESI. Obtenido de
http://home.anadolu.edu.tr/~mcavcar/common/ISAweb.pdf
Wei, Y., Zhang, T., & Wang, S. (2015). Prompt design of the air-supply opening
size for a commercial airplane based on the proper orthogonal
decomposition of flows. Building and Environmental, 131-141.
doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.11.020
Hermes, C. (April de 2015). Refrigerant charge reduction in vapor compession
refrigeration cycles via liquid-to-suction heat exchange. International
Journal of Refrigeration, 52, 93-99. doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2014.12.014
Federal Aviation Organization. (s.f.). Cabin Environmental Control Systems.
Washingtion, DC, USA: Handbooks Manuals.
Martinez, I. (2016). Aircraft environmental control.

ECS. (2014). An aerospace environmental control systems consulting firm.


Obtenido de This is ECS:
http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/5031/how-hot-wouldpressurized-air-get-if-the-air-conditioning-failed
Sikorski, E. (2010). Air-Conditioning of Parked Aircraft by GroundBased Equipment. [online]
International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference. Available at:
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2085&context=iracc [Accessed 20 Apr.
2016].

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