Optimizing the Thermodynamic Performance of the Fuel/Lubricating Oil Heat Exchanger for an Aeroengine

Guangle Li (), Haijun Shen, Guangle Zeng, Huiqing Jiang, Wang Li and Shuai An
Additional contact information
Guangle Li: School of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Haijun Shen: School of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Guangle Zeng: Department of Mechanical System Research, AECC Hunan Aviation Powerplant Research Institute, Zhuzhou 412002, China
Huiqing Jiang: Department of Mechanical System Research, AECC Hunan Aviation Powerplant Research Institute, Zhuzhou 412002, China
Wang Li: Department of Mechanical System Research, AECC Hunan Aviation Powerplant Research Institute, Zhuzhou 412002, China
Shuai An: Wuhuan Engineering Co., Ltd., Wuhan 430223, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: HTRI xchanger Suite 6.0 software was employed to analyze the thermodynamic performance and thermal resistance distribution of the fuel/lubricating oil heat exchanger A for an aeroengine. Calculated results demonstrated good agreement with experimental results for both heat transfer and flow resistance characteristics. The thermal resistance analysis revealed that the tube-side contribution dominated, accounting for 84.6% of the total resistance. The whole aeroengine test revealed that insufficient tube-side velocity resulted in prolonged fuel filling time, subsequently delaying fuel ignition and affecting aeroengine starting. To address these issues while maintaining lubricating oil cooling requirements, a structural optimization incorporating twisted tape inserts was proposed. It was calculated by HTRI software that when the twist ratio and the thickness of twisted tape inserts was 4 and 0.5 mm, respectively, the optimized fuel/lubricating oil heat exchanger B demonstrated remarkable performance improvements, with an 82.6% reduction in total thermal resistance, a 213% increase in overall heat transfer coefficient, and an 18.0% reduction in total mass. A subsequent whole aeroengine test at the performance evaluation point confirmed that heat exchanger B successfully met all technical requirements of total mass, flow resistance, heat transfer rate, and aeroengine starting, simultaneously. The demonstrated methodology presents significant potential for broader aerospace thermal management applications, such as performance prediction of enhanced heat exchangers, multi-objective optimization of thermal systems, and integrated thermal management solutions.

Keywords: fuel/lubricating oil heat exchanger; HTRI software; thermodynamic performance; aeroengine test; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/4955/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/4955/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:18:p:4955-:d:1752015

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Shen

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().