Experimental and numerical investigation of the aircraft fuel tank inerting system.

The performance of the aircraft fuel tank inerting system is influenced by multiple factors which are strongly coupled. It is a time-consuming process to analyse and evaluate the performance of the system through experiments, and it is difficult to analyse the effects of various factors through limited experimental data. An efficient numerical method is significant for the preliminary design and optimisation of inerting products. In this paper, a generic mathematical model of the hollow-fibre-membrane module (HFMM) was established and the accuracy of the numerical results was verified using experimental data. Based on this mathematical model, a simulation model of the aircraft fuel tank inerting system was developed through cosimulation of AMESim and Matlab/Simulink. The accuracy and applicability of the simulation model for this inerting system were verified using experimental test data. Using this simulation model, the effect of nitrogen-enrich air (NEA) flow rate and aircraft flight altitude on the performance of the inerting system were investigated. The results show that increasing the NEA flow rate contributes to a shorter time for the oxygen concentration to reach a steady state while with a higher stabilised value. The use of a high NEA flow mode is effective in improving the inerting performance during the rapid descent stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]