A Five-Dimensional Framework for Constructing System-Level Digital Twins in Aero Plane Thermal Management Systems

This paper presents a study on constructing a digital twin system for an aircraft thermal management system (TMS) using a five-dimensional framework. The TMS is crucial for maintaining the operational efficiency and safety of aircraft by regulating onboard temperatures. Airborne temperature-dependent physical architecture provides thermal sensing, while the software system issues commands for coordinated regulation. The digital twin integrates physical and virtual entities through a user-friendly interface, enabling real-time monitoring and analysis of the system’s performance. The study focuses on a simplified TMS laboratory bench, comprising five modules: fuel supply, pressure boost, airplane heat generation, main combustion chamber flow control, and fuel scavenge. The digital twin includes a physical entity with sensors, a virtual entity modeled using Amesim software, digital data storage, and a connection dimension for data transmission. The system uses a PLC to handle data interaction and PID control algorithms to manage the equipment. Experiments were conducted to verify the digital twin’s accuracy. The results showed that the physical and virtual entities had high compatibility, with minimal differencesin parameters such as total mass flow, main combustion chamber mass flow, fuel scavenge mass flow, and temperature. This study demonstrates for the first time a system-level implementation of a five-dimensional digital twin framework on a simplified aircraft TMS, achieving less than 2% error in mass flow and temperature prediction. The results validate the framework’s feasibility as a precursor to real aircraft TMS digital twins.