Critical Impact of Thermal Management Systems on On-Board Systems in Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft

Critical Impact of Thermal Management Systems on On-Board Systems in Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Critical Impact of Thermal Management Systems on On-Board Systems in Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft Kai Beschorner, Felix Verwiebe, Nils Külper, Thimo Bielsky, Frank Thielecke This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8521818/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Hydrogen-powered aircraft offer a promising pathway to reduce the aviation sector's climate impact, with fuel cells providing high-efficiency power conversion at around 50%. However, producing considerable waste heat at around 80°C. Since this heat is generated inside the aircraft, implementing an active thermal management system to dissipate it becomes a critical design consideration. In this paper, a holistic design methodology for the TMS to calculate its mass, power demand, and drag is presented. Exceeding previous work, the assessment includes the impact of this integration on the design of other on-board systems and the aircraft's performance in terms of mission energy. Applied to the 70-passenger ESBEF-CP1 concept aircraft, the analysis shows that the TMS adds around 5200kg system mass distributed over ten pods, 9kN drag, and 2MW peak fan power, resulting in a 32% increase in mission energy demand after only a single iteration of the other systems design. The findings highlight that relying solely on ambient air as a heat sink results in high drag and fan power demand, challenging aircraft feasibility. Thermal Management Conceptual Design Impact Assessment Fuel Cells Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8521818","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":588224492,"identity":"e3088cd3-c3ef-465e-9ef6-1c3693d892f3","order_by":0,"name":"Kai Beschorner","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA50lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACCQbGBmYQwwDCtwEK8TAw8JCgJU2CCC0MDMhaDhPWItl+uIG5oKJO3py999mDj3vO1xnc7j3A8KYCtxZpnsQG5hlnDhvu7Dlubjjj2W0JgzvnEhjnnMGtRY4BqIW37UCCwY00NmmeA0AtN3IMgCJ4tPA/BGr5VwfR8ufAOaiWf3gcJgGypYEZooXhwAGolgY83p/xsOHwjGOHDTecOcYm2XMgWXImUMvBOcdwa5E4n/7wcUFNnbzB8TY2iR8H7Pj5buQYPnhTg1sLCBwgQmQUjIJRMApGAUkAAIfuUai3rJiMAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Hamburg University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kai","middleName":"","lastName":"Beschorner","suffix":""},{"id":588224493,"identity":"f91f3aea-a298-4408-b5f9-93c0e07b9955","order_by":1,"name":"Felix Verwiebe","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hamburg University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Felix","middleName":"","lastName":"Verwiebe","suffix":""},{"id":588224494,"identity":"1330cb6b-6512-4c1d-8373-732751c4cd16","order_by":2,"name":"Nils Külper","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hamburg University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nils","middleName":"","lastName":"Külper","suffix":""},{"id":588224495,"identity":"b247ab62-5aca-4f52-8c9e-d7823f61a7f6","order_by":3,"name":"Thimo Bielsky","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hamburg University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Thimo","middleName":"","lastName":"Bielsky","suffix":""},{"id":588224496,"identity":"fec1cee5-f422-4be8-af63-6c80ba4e05ab","order_by":4,"name":"Frank Thielecke","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hamburg University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Frank","middleName":"","lastName":"Thielecke","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-05 13:23:27","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8521818/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8521818/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105564850,"identity":"c0e0ff15-2003-4689-b116-7f72f6ab88d0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-27 12:51:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1493706,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"2026BeschornerCEASJournalImpactofTMS.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8521818/v1_covered_9532820f-4a4f-49b0-9fd2-57f9dc77a67b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Critical Impact of Thermal Management Systems on On-Board Systems in Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":true,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Thermal Management, Conceptual Design, Impact Assessment, Fuel Cells","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8521818/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8521818/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Hydrogen-powered aircraft offer a promising pathway to reduce the aviation sector's climate impact, with fuel cells providing high-efficiency power conversion at around 50%. 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