Project description
Novel aircraft cabin heating technology
Relaxing COVID-19 travel restrictions is likely to result in increased air passenger travel and the return of airline competition. In this context, the EU-funded RADIANT PANEL project will improve in-flight comfort for passengers with a groundbreaking novel radiant heat panel. The innovative panel will maintain the same thermal environment and comfort levels expected onboard aircraft, requiring significantly less energy consumption compared to conventional systems. Utilising a material that exhibits a positive temperature coefficient, the radiant heat panel will complement environmental control system ducting, helping reduce power consumption by 30 %. It will be located between the aircraft’s outer skin and the interior sidewall, optimising up space; and will not require any electronic control, optimising safety and minimizing complexity.
Objective
The RADIANT Project has for ambition to create the smartest self-limiting heating system integrated on cabin panel to revolutionize the thermal comfort of Aircraft while contributing to the competitiveness of our industry.
The consortium members are HUTCHINSON, a world leader for Cabin solutions, CANOE is a R&T centre with more than 5 years of expertise in the field of cost-effective carbon fibrous materials and smart composites especially for aeronautics market and CTAG a non-profit technology Center with years of expertise in the numerical simulation for thermal efficiency active in the automotive industry.
The RADIANT PANEL project offers a disruptive innovation proposal based on three main pillars:
A new positive temperature coefficient (PTC) textile coating made of ex-cellulose carbon fiber and a PVDF-based polymer,
A heated multi-functional cabin panel
A fully robotized manufacturing cell for the cabin panel assembly.
During the project, 2 type of coating will be tested. The textile coating will be assembled with their connectors on the top layer of the cabin panel by a collaborative work between a Cobot and a 6 axis robot. It is also proposed to carry out the full cabin temperature and air flow simulation using a specific software (TAITherm) coupled with the Human Thermal Module for the comfort prediction. Functionnal test and certification test will be validated the soltuion.
The RADIANT project has a 36 months duration and a budget of 702,516€. The consortium aims to take 10% market share of the cabin panel business, evaluated at 90 M€.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringthermodynamic engineering
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringautomotive engineering
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringtextiles
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcompositescarbon fibers
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CS2-IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
75008 Paris
France