Real-Time Heat-Sink Capability Monitoring Framework of Fuel Thermal Management System

With the proliferation of high-power electronics, electric propulsion, and directed-energy weapons, thermal management has evolved from a high-speed flight concern into a systemic bottleneck across subsonic, transonic, and supersonic aircraft. Conventional fuel thermal management systems rely on engine inlet fuel temperature as feedback, a strategy effective under nominal conditions but inherently reactive. When mission heat loads exceed the system’s intrinsic heat-sink capacity, the lagging thermal response delays decisions on when to shed heat loads, while the lack of a predictive metric leaves how much to reduce undefined. This often causes excessive mission degradation or thermal safety violations. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes a real-time heat-sink capability monitoring framework based on two physically interpretable metrics: maximum thermal capacity and maximum thermal endurance. Embedded in a dual-tank fuel thermal management system, the framework continuously predicts thermal boundaries and, when thermal endurance falls below remaining mission time, proactively triggers precise, minimal-intervention heat-load adjustments, well before temperature limits are reached. Simulations on a high-dynamic fighter mission profile show the approach successfully completes scenarios otherwise infeasible due to thermal constraints, significantly improving thermal adaptability and mission reliability. This work provides a quantifiable, engineering-ready foundation for next-generation intelligent thermal management, enabling a shift from experience-dependent design to prediction-driven, mission-aware control.