Optimization and database management in smart modeling of aviation heat exchangers

Analytical tools for modern aviation heat exchangers (HEXs), such as those that are additively manufactured, have to be advanced and smart. To develop such tools, procedures are presented in this paper that obviate the need for the standard ε-number-of-transfer-units method of analysis, enable multiple-rating capabilities, and support the generation and exporting of lookup tables that could be readily inserted into a system-level multidisciplinary design optimization platform. Three practical optimization procedures are evaluated and compared for their ability to efficiently handle the design variables and the performance rating, constraints, and objective functions in the optimization of aviation thermal management components and subsystems. Modern database management techniques are also implemented to enable the generation of the training data that are required for building intelligence into the developed HEX software. The mathematical and qualitative details of the heat transfer aspects of a few of these capabilities are presented in this paper, as are two case studies pertaining to optimization where we compare two of the developed approaches. To the knowledge of the authors, no previous studies have addressed the issues resolved in this paper.