Fuel flowrate control for aeroengine and fuel thermal management for airborne system of aircraft—an overview

Fuel flowrate control system and fuel thermal management are very important for aeroengine and the overall aircraft, and it has been researched for several decades. This survey paper makes a comprehensive and systematic overview on the exiting fuel flowrate regulation methods, thermal load of fuel metering units, fuel-based thermal management, and the fuel tank’s thermal management topology network with drain and recirculation. This paper firstly reviews the mechanism, technical advantages, and technical challenges of the fuel metering unit with flowrate control valve and constant pressure difference valve compensator, flowrate control valve and variable displacement pump-based pressure difference compensator, and motor-based flowrate regulation. Then, the technical characteristics of above fuel flowrate control methods related to thermal management are discussed and compared. Meanwhile, the behaviors of recirculated fuel flow within single tank system and dual tank system are explored. Thirdly, the paper discusses the future directions of fuel flowrate control and thermal management. The survey is significant to the fuel flowrate control and fuel thermal management of the aircraft.