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Vapor compression system data-driven surrogate models for aircraft Environmental Control Systems

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Abstract
Commercial aircraft manufacturers are actively working to develop more efficient Environmental Control Systems (ECS) in line with the More Electric Aircraft (MEA) concept. Novel ECS architectures may integrate supplementary cooling units based on Vapor Compression Systems (VCS), which provide more efficient cooling compared to traditional Air Cycle Machines (ACM). The design, optimization, and evaluation of these new ECS configurations rely on numerical simulations. Given the inherent complexity and computational demands of VCS, this study explores the use of data-driven surrogate models for efficient simulation of these systems. The main objective was to develop surrogate models for the VCS cooling unit, designed as steady-state equivalents of physics-based models, which have provided the training and testing data. To achieve this, we developed data-driven surrogate models using Gaussian Processes (GP) and Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLP), both trained on outputs from high-fidelity simulations. The results show that GP models perform best when the output data exhibits smooth, continuous behavior, while MLPs are better suited to capturing complex, nonlinear behavior. This complementary performance highlights the strengths of each approach depending on the nature of the output data. Once model accuracy is verified, the VCS data-driven surrogate models were seamlessly adapted to be used under the Modelica/Dymola environment to comprehensively assess their accuracy and computational performance. The results demonstrated a significantly lower CPU time consumption when comparing physics-based models to data-driven twins across various scenarios, including VCS steady-state conditions, ECS steady-state conditions, and ECS dynamic conditions.
Keywords
Complex system simulation, Environmental control system, Vapor compression system, Surrogate model, Data-driven model, Gaussian Process, Multi layer perceptron, OPTIMIZATION, MACHINE

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MLA
Ablanque, Nicolas, et al. “Vapor Compression System Data-Driven Surrogate Models for Aircraft Environmental Control Systems.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION, vol. 178, 2025, pp. 336–46, doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2025.06.035.
APA
Ablanque, N., Satrio Loka, N. R. B., Torras, S., Gurumurthy, S., Rigola, J., Oliet, C., … Monti, A. (2025). Vapor compression system data-driven surrogate models for aircraft Environmental Control Systems. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION, 178, 336–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2025.06.035
Chicago author-date
Ablanque, Nicolas, Nasrulloh Ratu Bagus Satrio Loka, Santiago Torras, Sriram Gurumurthy, Joaquim Rigola, Carles Oliet, Ivo Couckuyt, Tom Dhaene, and Antonello Monti. 2025. “Vapor Compression System Data-Driven Surrogate Models for Aircraft Environmental Control Systems.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION 178: 336–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2025.06.035.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Ablanque, Nicolas, Nasrulloh Ratu Bagus Satrio Loka, Santiago Torras, Sriram Gurumurthy, Joaquim Rigola, Carles Oliet, Ivo Couckuyt, Tom Dhaene, and Antonello Monti. 2025. “Vapor Compression System Data-Driven Surrogate Models for Aircraft Environmental Control Systems.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION 178: 336–346. doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2025.06.035.
Vancouver
1.
Ablanque N, Satrio Loka NRB, Torras S, Gurumurthy S, Rigola J, Oliet C, et al. Vapor compression system data-driven surrogate models for aircraft Environmental Control Systems. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION. 2025;178:336–46.
IEEE
[1]
N. Ablanque et al., “Vapor compression system data-driven surrogate models for aircraft Environmental Control Systems,” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION, vol. 178, pp. 336–346, 2025.
@article{01K4AB9QMJ35TDNK0HDVTP0QEP,
  abstract     = {{Commercial aircraft manufacturers are actively working to develop more efficient Environmental Control Systems (ECS) in line with the More Electric Aircraft (MEA) concept. Novel ECS architectures may integrate supplementary cooling units based on Vapor Compression Systems (VCS), which provide more efficient cooling compared to traditional Air Cycle Machines (ACM). The design, optimization, and evaluation of these new ECS configurations rely on numerical simulations. Given the inherent complexity and computational demands of VCS, this study explores the use of data-driven surrogate models for efficient simulation of these systems. The main objective was to develop surrogate models for the VCS cooling unit, designed as steady-state equivalents of physics-based models, which have provided the training and testing data. To achieve this, we developed data-driven surrogate models using Gaussian Processes (GP) and Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLP), both trained on outputs from high-fidelity simulations. The results show that GP models perform best when the output data exhibits smooth, continuous behavior, while MLPs are better suited to capturing complex, nonlinear behavior. This complementary performance highlights the strengths of each approach depending on the nature of the output data. Once model accuracy is verified, the VCS data-driven surrogate models were seamlessly adapted to be used under the Modelica/Dymola environment to comprehensively assess their accuracy and computational performance. The results demonstrated a significantly lower CPU time consumption when comparing physics-based models to data-driven twins across various scenarios, including VCS steady-state conditions, ECS steady-state conditions, and ECS dynamic conditions.}},
  author       = {{Ablanque, Nicolas and Satrio Loka, Nasrulloh Ratu Bagus and Torras, Santiago and Gurumurthy, Sriram and Rigola, Joaquim and Oliet, Carles and Couckuyt, Ivo and Dhaene, Tom and Monti, Antonello}},
  issn         = {{0140-7007}},
  journal      = {{INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION}},
  keywords     = {{Complex system simulation,Environmental control system,Vapor compression system,Surrogate model,Data-driven model,Gaussian Process,Multi layer perceptron,OPTIMIZATION,MACHINE}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{336--346}},
  title        = {{Vapor compression system data-driven surrogate models for aircraft Environmental Control Systems}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2025.06.035}},
  volume       = {{178}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

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