Collins Aerospace Galley Thermal and Power Optimization

Abstract

The galley represents the largest electrical load on an aircraft. This load leads to a major consumption of fuel, a valuable resource to airlines both for cost and emissions reduction. Additionally, reducing power demands in the galley creates room for future novel electrical systems, which is important as the industry shifts to More Electric Aircraft (MEA) - replacing hydraulic/pneumatic systems with modern electric ones. Thus, we were tasked with improving the electrical and thermal systems that support the galley to help reduce its power consumption. The impact of our work can be quantified using two main metrics: the decrease in average power consumption and the decrease in maximum power consumption. This project provided an opportunity to not only research potential technologies to reduce galley energy usage, but to also create a platform to enable future ones to be modeled and tested. As a result of this, as well as the lack of available information regarding the current power consumption of airplane galleys, a large portion of this project was dedicated to creating a baseline power consumption model to help understand the energy profile of the galley and test our solutions. Our baseline model is modular and fully functional; this allowed us to evaluate the impact of three different technologies: aerogel insulation to mitigate heat loss, variable air flow to remove heat more efficiently, and a power controller to more intelligently manage power consumption. These solutions work with one another to reduce the average power consumption over 100 flights by 12.8%. In addition, the solutions reduced the peak power consumption over 100 flights by 27.4%. This meant we achieved our highest priority requirements, which were to reduce these power consumptions by 10% and 25% respectively.