Surveillance Aircraft Cooling Systems – A Parameter Tuning Study

Saab has modified several passenger aircraft to be used for airborne surveillance. These include the indigenous Saab 340 and Saab 2000, and the Bombardier Global 6000. These aircraft are retrofitted with airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) systems and are typically distinguished by the pod of electronics mounted atop the fuselage. They conduct long duration (8-10 hours) missions with the AEW&C system running on high power (10’s of kW) continuously. However, these systems have almost zero energy-efficiency and produce as much waste heat as they draw electrical power. Therefore, they require efficient state-of-the-art cooling systems to ensure their temperature sensitive electronics are not damaged.

Retrofitting a new cooling system on an existing airframe comes with its own challenges. These challenges along with other challenges such as aircraft operating conditions are addressed in a publication in MDPI Aerospace titled ‘Parameter Tuning of a Vapor Cycle System for a Surveillance Aircraft’. The paper proposes a two-part method. The first part focuses on how to set up a design parameter study. The second part is an analysis method for the results of the parameter study. The models for the study were set-up and solved using Modelon Impact and its component libraries.