Aviation fuels are used as the primary coolant for aircraft heat loads. The fuel system usually operates at supercritical pressure and the fuel temperature increases due to the heating elevates the operation of the heat exchanger into the supercritical regime. Also at high fuel temperatures, the fouling of the fuel tubes due to deposits resulting from the dissolved oxygen may eventually plug the fuel passage.

CFDRC engineers analyzed typical aircraft heat exchanger systems using CFD-ACE+. Some of the analyses featured fouling models for aviation fuels that have been published in the literature. Example results from these analyses are shown on this page.