Performance analysis of aircraft fuel tank inerting system with turbocharger

Abstract

The onboard inert gas generation system with turbocharger (OBIGGSTC) was proposed for better inerting performance of an aircraft fuel tank. The operating principle and method of the system were introduced, and the mathematical model of the major component was deduced. Then, the characteristic of the system was simulated based on the software AMESim. Compared with the traditional onboard inert gas generation system (OBIGGS), the proposed system has the potential advantages of reducing the weight and volume of the air separation system by decreasing the number of hollow fiber membrane modules (HFMMs) from a maximum number of eight to one at 0.3 MPa of the bleed air from the engine. When both inerting systems have a single HFMM configuration, the OBIGGSTC can substantially reduce the inerting time by 66.6% compared with the OBIGGS at 0.3 MPa of the bleed air. Due to the turbine applied, the mass flow rate of the bleed air of the inerting system with turbine is greater than the traditional system. The compensatory loss of the proposed system is less than the OBIGGS by a maximum of 57.39% when the bleed air pressure varies from 0.3 to 0.8 MPa with a range in flight time from 4 h to 10 h. By analyzing the two inerting system, the OBIGGSTC has better performance than the OBIGGS.