Thermal modeling of a rotating heat pipe aero-engine nose cone anti-icing system

A new aero-engine nose cone anti-icing system using a rotating heat pipe has been proposed to replace the current method of blowing hot compressor bleed air over the nose cone surface. Here, the heat is transferred from a hot source within the engine to the nose cone through a rotating heat pipe along the central fan shaft. A compact evaporator is used at the evaporator end due to space constraints in the engine. The system is modeled as a thermal resistance network where the thermo-fluid dynamics of each component determine the resistors. This paper reviews each of the component models and results, which show that the evaporator thermal resistance is one of the limiting factors for adequate transfer of heat for anti-icing. Copyright © 2004 SAE International.