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Mechanical Engineering Commons

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Aerospace Engineering

1999

AFIT Patents

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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Variable Area Inlet For Vehicle Thermal Control, Thomas R. Layne, Milton E. Franke, Darrell B. Ridgedly Apr 1999

Variable Area Inlet For Vehicle Thermal Control, Thomas R. Layne, Milton E. Franke, Darrell B. Ridgedly

AFIT Patents

A variable area inlet structure for a vehicle utilizing ram air for coolant is described which comprises a variable area inlet device in the ram air inlet in the form of a butterfly valve, damper, shutter, or similar structure, a temperature sensor in thermal contact with a component within the vehicle to be cooled by ram air flow, a controller and actuator, responsive to the temperature sensor and operatively connected to the variable area device, for controlling the inlet area in response to the component temperature.