US 11,939,078 B1
Active fuel thermal conditioning for aircraft
Clarence Lui, Diamond Bar, CA (US); and Matthew Dooley, Torrance, CA (US)
Assigned to NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION, Falls Church, VA (US)
Filed by Clarence Lui, Diamond Bar, CA (US); and Matthew Dooley, Torrance, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 13, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/927,754.
Application 16/927,754 is a division of application No. 15/459,823, filed on Mar. 15, 2017, granted, now 10,752,374.
Int. Cl. B64D 37/34 (2006.01); B64D 13/06 (2006.01); B64D 13/08 (2006.01); B64D 37/02 (2006.01); F02C 7/224 (2006.01)
CPC B64D 37/34 (2013.01) [B64D 13/08 (2013.01); F02C 7/224 (2013.01); B64D 2013/0614 (2013.01); B64D 2013/0696 (2013.01); B64D 37/02 (2013.01); F05D 2270/07 (2013.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An active aircraft thermal management system comprising:
at least one fuel supply conduit to provide supply fuel, having a coking limit, from at least one fuel storage tank, to sink waste heat from one or more aircraft systems to the supply fuel, and send the waste heat to one or more engines via the supply fuel;
at least one engine fuel system to sink heat from engine lubricant to the supply fuel and to provide at least one of the one or more engines with the supply fuel for combustion;
at least one return fuel conduit to return the supply fuel as return fuel;
a power and thermal module (PTM) comprising an air cycle machine configured to provide power to start one or more of the one or more engines and to condition air to provide cool air to a thermal load;
a thermal tank to hold thermally conditioned return fuel; and
at least one turbo machine mounted to at least one of the one or more engines, the at least one turbo machine comprising, on a single shaft, a cooling turbine, a compressor, and a power turbine, the at least one turbo machine being configured to expand engine combustor air to drive a closed loop air cooling cycle to thermally condition the supply fuel to below a supply temperature such that the supply fuel is capable of cooling components of at least one of the one or more engines and remaining below the coking limit prior to the combustion in any of the one or more engines, the at least one turbo machine being further configured to return the expanded air to a turbine discharge of the at least one of the one or more engines to which the at least one turbo machine is mounted, such that the expanded air rejoins engine main flow to produce thrust.