Endurance Life Estimation of Aircraft Compact Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Heat Exchangers are used in various engineering systems to transfer heat from a hot fluid to cold fluid across an impermeable wall. The necessity of increased heat transfer surface area has resulted in the development of Compact Heat Exchangers (CHE). Due to their compactness, high performances and less weight, CHE is used for aerospace applications. CHE used in combat aircrafts experience arduous and extreme working conditions during their operation. Before its integration with aircraft, CHEs are required to be tested for performance and qualified for airworthiness by evaluating its endurance life. This paper provides the details of the facility established to experimentally evaluate the endurance life. A computational analysis was carried out to estimate the endurance life with respect to fatigue effects using Finite Element Analysis to calculate stress distribution due to pressure and temperature in CHE during maximum and minimum operating conditions. This was then utilized to calculate fatigue life of CHE. The results were compared with experimental data and it is understood that fatigue alone does not determine the endurance life and there are other parameters that significantly influence the life of CHE.