Evaluation metrics for systems architecting demonstrated on cooling system of hydrogen-powered concept aircraft

Climate change presents a global challenge, with aviation significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce the environmental impact of aviation, novel aircraft concepts incorporating renewable energy sources, such as green hydrogen, are being explored during the aircraft conceptual design phase. Low temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells are currently being investigated as one possible technology for supplying power to the aircraft power train and on-board systems. However, the design of a cooling system for these fuel cells is challenging due to the small available temperature difference between fuel cell operation and ambient temperatures in hot day on-ground scenarios. Therefore, the development of novel cooling system architecture concepts is necessary. For this design problem, many conceivable architecture variants need to be investigated, resulting in a complex and large design space during systems architecting. To assist the engineer during systems architecting and to reduce the design space to promising architecture variants, the Systems Architecting Assistant (SArA) methodology is used. In this work, SArA is extended by a method for evaluating architecture performance based on the metrics complexity and risk, including a knowledge-based and a model-based approach. This helps engineers quantitatively compare system architecture alternatives, thereby simplifying the down-selection process. The developed metrics are applied to eight different cooling system architecture variants of a hydrogen-powered concept aircraft, enabling a rapid and partially automated approach for architecture evaluation. While the use of a combined knowledge-based and model-based approach proved beneficial, it became apparent that complexity and risk as high-level metrics provide limited insights and value in the decision-making process. To enhance the value of the evaluation method and to gain a deeper understanding of the architectures, a comprehensive investigation of the selected technologies becomes imperative.

DDC Class

620.1: Engineering Mechanics and Materials Science

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Evaluation metrics for systems architecting demonstrated on cooling system of hydrogen-powered concept aircraft