Collab Aims To Control Heat Spikes During Takeoffs

Researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) in Brazil are collaborating to address one of the primary challenges of electric aircraft – mitigating the heat spikes generated during takeoff.

The collaborative project is supported by a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation International Research Experiences for Students, or NSF-IRES. The project is intended to provide hands-on training in research for students to prepare them to tackle the issue of managing heat on electric aircraft. This is considered one of the main ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the aviation industry.

Three cohorts of five Embry-Riddle students over the next three years will spend eight to ten weeks between May and August in Brazil at the ITA.

Dr. Sandra Boetcher is the interim department chair and professor of Mechanical Engineering  and principal investigator on the project. She said, “Both sides have been working on the heat management challenge, so there are some real synergies.” Boetcher is working with co-principal investigator Dr. Mark Ricklick, along with Dr. Guilherme Borges Ribeiro and Dr. Elisan dos Santos Magalhães of Brazil.

One of the primary technologies being looked at involves phase-change materials. Such materials convert from a solid to a liquid at specific temperatures and are able to absorb large amounts of heat during that phase transition.

A familiar example of a phase change is ice melting into water. During the melting, its temperature stays the same until the entire ice cube is melted. Then, the temperature of the water begins to increase.

The investigators are considering different materials that could be used to leverage the phase change phenomenon by using some type of mass, say a slab of it, positioned under the aircraft’s electrical circuitry to maintain its temperature below a certain level.

FMI:  erau.edu/ , www.ita.br/