This topic focuses on developing a compact, high-efficiency CO₂ (R-744) compressor specifically tailored for aircraft thermal management systems (TMS) across a wide range of Air Force platforms, including fighters, transports, tankers, and next-generation autonomous collaborative platforms (ACP). Modern aircraft face growing thermal challenges from advanced mission systems such as radars, electronic warfare, and high-power avionics that demand reliable, lightweight, and efficient cooling solutions. While legacy refrigerants such as R-134a and R-1233zd(E) are commonly used, they require bulky, heavy components that constrain system design. By contrast, CO₂ offers high volumetric cooling capacity, environmental neutrality, and the potential for significant reductions in system size and weight. Military aviation operations introduce unique challenges. CO₂ systems operate at substantially higher pressures and often in transcritical cycles, requiring compressors capable of safely handling high pressure conditions while minimizing vibration, noise, and weight. The compressor must maintain high efficiency across a wide range of operating conditions, including hot-day ground operations and high-altitude low-temperature environments. This project seeks to develop and demonstrate compressor technologies that deliver a compact, high-efficiency, low-noise, and reliable aviation‑grade CO₂ compressor capable of precise temperature control and reliable operation throughout all mission phases. The proposed work should address the critical challenge of managing high heat loads in military aircraft. This project will leverage the thermodynamic properties of CO₂ to develop a compact, lightweight, and energy‑efficient thermal management CO2 compressor capable of reliable performance during high-demand phases of the mission, such as takeoff, climb and mission system engagement. The compressor should be designed to handle the highly dynamic thermal loads generated by next‑generation electrified aviation systems, ensuring stable and efficient cooling performance throughout all mission phases. The heat load can vary throughout a mission from notionally 200 kW during takeoff to 75 kW at cruise conditions, and the compressor must be able to operate efficiently over the entire range of heat loads. The compressor must cool the heat load to 20 °C ± 5 °C, and be capable of rejecting heat to a heat sink at 50 °C with a typical gas-cooler if needed. Proposals should address the development of an aviation-grade CO₂ compressor capable of operating efficiently across the full environmental, temperature, and pressure envelopes encountered in aircraft TMS, including high-altitude low-temperature environments, shock, vibration, EMI, etc., while operating in a transcritical thermodynamic cycle.
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