Flight Testing of Alternative Ventilation Systems for Aircraft Cabins

Abstract

Cabin displacement ventilation (CDV) has been evaluated for the first time in a real passenger aircraft cabin under flight conditions. Two ventila-tion systems, i.e. pure CDV and a hybrid system (HV), which provides 30% of the total volume flow rate through the lateral outlets, were tested in an A320 aircraft. While pure CDV was found to provide low air velocities, high heat re-moval efficiencies and a very good dynamic performance regarding control of the air temperatures, the hybrid system, still allowing for comfortable flow ve-locities and good heat removal efficiencies, was shown to significantly improve the cooling and heating rates at the cabin surfaces. With both systems, the local temperature in the passenger zone is distributed very homogeneously among the investigated seat and aisle positions.