Patent attributes
A thermal management system for a pulse load on an aircraft. The thermal management system utilizing the reserve fuel from the aircraft to create thermal capacitance such that the instantaneous capacity of the cooling system to remove heat from the aircraft may be sized less than the rate of heat generated by the pulsed load (e.g. laser, radar, rail gun etc.) The reserve fuel is maintained at a temperature in a reservoir and cooled via a cooling system. Fuel from the reservoir is selectively mixed with fuel exiting the pulsed load heat exchanger to provide fuel to the inlet of the heat exchanger at a predetermined temperature, the temperature based at least upon the heat generated by the laser, flow rate of fuel and efficiency of the heat exchanger.
