Environmental Control System for a twin-engine mid-size helicopter - Preparation and validation of a 1D lumped parameters simulation model for a case study system

This thesis work was carried out in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino at the Collins Aerospace plant in Luserna San Giovanni which is specialized in Actuation and Environmental Control Systems. Environmental Control System (ECS) or Air management system plays a key role in aircraft performance. It provides air supply, pressurization, thermal control, and cabin dehumidifying for the crew and passengers. The system must always ensure the best performance, with a very high standard of reliability. To guarantee these demands, replacement or design modification of sub-components is sometimes necessary. For this purpose experiments are carried out for performance prediction/assessment, which is costly and time-consuming. Therefore, developing a way to numerically forecast the performance of alternative system configurations is crucial for a company. The research focuses on modelling the ECS for an existing twin-engine mid-size helicopter supplied by Collins Aerospace. For this purpose, a one-dimensional model was realised in the Simcenter Amesim environment. The process includes the creation of a transient model based on the lumped parameter method, which can compute the system performance. This approach reduces the design cycle time greatly since it is reliable and computationally highly efficient. This model is designed to make qualitative predictions and offers a solid framework for expanding it to make precise quantitative predictions.