Electric, hybrid, and turboelectric fixed-wing aircraft: A review of concepts, models, and design approaches

Theory Of Wing Sections Including A Summary Of Airfoil Data

Ever since the Wright brothers’ first powered flight in 1903, commercial aircraft have relied on liquid hydrocarbon fuels. However, the need for greenhouse gas emission reductions along with recent progress in battery technology for automobiles has generated strong interest in electric propulsion in aviation. This Analysis provides a first-order assessment of the energy, economic and environmental implications of all-electric aircraft. We show that batteries with significantly higher specific energy and lower cost, coupled with further reductions of costs and CO2 intensity of electricity, are necessary for exploiting the full range of economic and environmental benefits provided by all-electric aircraft. A global fleet of all-electric aircraft serving all flights up to a distance of 400–600 nautical miles (741–1,111 km) would demand an equivalent of 0.6–1.7% of worldwide electricity consumption in 2015. Although lifecycle CO2 emissions of all-electric aircraft depend on the power generation mix, all direct combustion emissions and thus direct air pollutants and direct non-CO2 warming impacts would be eliminated. Electric aircraft offer an aviation decarbonization pathway and attract increasing attention owing to the rapid development of batteries. Here Andreas Schafer and colleagues analyse the potential technological, economic and environmental viability of battery-electric commercial aircraft.

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Technological, economic and environmental prospects of all-electric aircraft

Ambitious targets to reduce emissions caused by aviation in the light of an expected ongoing rise of the air transport demand in the future drive the research of propulsion systems with lower CO2 emissions. Regional hybrid electric aircraft (HEA) powered by conventional gas turbines and battery powered electric motors are investigated to test hybrid propulsion operation strategies. Especially the role of the battery within environmentally friendly concepts with significantly reduced carbon footprint is analyzed. Thus, a new simulation approach for HEA is introduced. The main findings underline the importance of choosing the right power-to-energy-ratio of a battery according to the flight mission. The gravimetric energy and power density of the electric storages determine the technologically feasibility of hybrid concepts. Cost competitive HEA configurations are found, but do not promise the targeted CO2 emission savings, when the well-to-wheel system is regarded with its actual costs. Sensitivity studies are used to determine external levers that favor the profitability of HEA.

Conceptual Design of Operation Strategies for Hybrid Electric Aircraft

Electrification of the propulsion system has opened the door to a new paradigm of propulsion system configurations and novel aircraft designs, which was never envisioned before. Despite lofty promises, the concept must overcome the design and sizing challenges to make it realizable. A suitable modeling framework is desired in order to explore the design space at the conceptual level. A greater investment in enabling technologies, and infrastructural developments, is expected to facilitate its successful application in the market. In this review paper, several scholarly articles were surveyed to get an insight into the current landscape of research endeavors and the formulated derivations related to electric aircraft developments. The barriers and the needed future technological development paths are discussed. The paper also includes detailed assessments of the implications and other needs pertaining to future technology, regulation, certification, and infrastructure developments, in order to make the next generation electric aircraft operation commercially worthy.

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A review of concepts, benefits, and challenges for future electrical propulsion-based aircraft

It is always a strong motivation for aeronautic researchers and engineers to reduce the aircraft emissions or even to achieve emission-free air transport. In this paper, the impacts of different game-changing technologies together on the reduction of aircraft fuel consumption and emissions are studied. In particular, a general tool has been developed for the technology assessment, integration and also for the overall aircraft multidisciplinary design optimization. The validity and robustness of the tool has been verified through comparative and sensitivity studies. The overall aircraft level technology assessment and optimization showed that promising fuel efficiency improvements are possible. Though, additional strategies are required to reach the aviation emission reduction goals for short and medium range configurations.

Exploring Vehicle Level Benefits of Revolutionary Technology Progress via Aircraft Design and Optimization

Conceptual design and optimization of a general aviation aircraft with fuel cells and hydrogen

The German Cluster of Excellence SE²A (Sustainable and Energy Efficient Aviation) is established in order to investigate the influence of game-changing technologies on the energy efficiency of future transport aircraft. In this paper, the preliminary investigation of the four game-changing technologies active flow control, active load alleviation, boundary layer ingestion, and novel materials and structure concepts on the performance of a long-range Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft is presented. The BWB that was equipped with the mentioned technologies was designed and optimized using the multi-fidelity aircraft design code SUAVE with a connection to the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code SU2. The conceptual design of the BWB aircraft is performed within the SUAVE framework, where the influence of the new technologies is investigated. In the second step, the initially designed BWB aircraft is improved by an aerodynamic shape optimization while using the SU2 CFD code. In the third step, the performance of the optimized aircraft is evaluated again using the SUAVE code. The results showed more than 60% reduction in the aircraft fuel burn when compared to the Boeing 777

/pdf/multi-fidelity-design-optimization-of-a-long-range-blended-1cvyt22z1z.pdf

Multi-Fidelity Design Optimization of a Long-Range Blended Wing Body Aircraft with New Airframe Technologies

The German Cluster of Excellence SE2A (Sustainable and Energy Efficient Aviation) is established in order to investigate the influence of game-changing technologies on the energy efficiency of future transport aircraft. In this paper, the preliminary investigation of the four game-changing technologies active flow control, active load alleviation, boundary layer ingestion, and novel materials and structure concepts on the performance of a long-range Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft is presented. The BWB that was equipped with the mentioned technologies was designed and optimized using the multi-fidelity aircraft design code SUAVE with a connection to the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code SU2. The conceptual design of the BWB aircraft is performed within the SUAVE framework, where the influence of the new technologies is investigated. In the second step, the initially designed BWB aircraft is improved by an aerodynamic shape optimization while using the SU2 CFD code. In the third step, the performance of the optimized aircraft is evaluated again using the SUAVE code. The results showed more than 60% reduction in the aircraft fuel burn when compared to the Boeing 777.

/pdf/multi-fidelity-design-optimization-of-a-long-range-blended-4a2niaump3.pdf

Yaolong Liu

Papers

Conceptual Design of Operation Strategies for Hybrid Electric Aircraft

Exploring Vehicle Level Benefits of Revolutionary Technology Progress via Aircraft Design and Optimization

Conceptual design and optimization of a general aviation aircraft with fuel cells and hydrogen

Multi-Fidelity Design Optimization of a Long-Range Blended Wing Body Aircraft with New Airframe Technologies

Multi-fidelity Design Optimization of a Long Range Blended Wing Body Aircraft with New Airframe Technologies