Uncertainty Quantification for Transient Thermal Management

Abstract

Thermal resource management (TRM) of onboard hypersonic vehicles is an important field of research and development, and considerable attention has been received from the scientific community in the past few decades. A scramjet engine at hypersonic speed warrants stringent cooling requirements to manage its thermal load. Therefore, managing thermal loads in an advanced engine to power future aircraft is challenging. The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is investigating ways in which heat can be dissipated to cool hypersonic vehicles. The uncertainty quantification in a transient heat rejection system is analyzed. The stochastic nature of the initial condition and heat rejection boundary condition is introduced to define the temperature distribution in the system. Results are presented for the temperature variation as a result of uncertainties in the initial condition and Biot number at the boundary where heat is rejected. The terms that impact the overall uncertainty in the transient regions are discussed.