No abstract

Urban air mobility (UAM), defined as safe and efficient air traffic operations in a metropolitan area for manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems, is being researched and developed by industry, academia, and government. This kind of mobility offers an opportunity to construct a green and sustainable sub-sector, building upon the lessons learned over decades by aviation. Thanks to their non-polluting operation and simple air traffic management, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft technologies are currently being developed and experimented with for this purpose. However, to successfully complete the certification and commercialization stage, several challenges need to be overcome, particularly in terms of performance, such as flight time and endurance, and reliability. In this paper, a fast methodology for sizing and selecting the propulsion chain components of an eVTOL multirotor aerial vehicle was developed and validated on a reduced-scale prototype of an electric multirotor vehicle with a GTOW of 15 kg. This methodology is associated with a comparative study of energy storage system configurations, in order to assess their effect on the flight time of the aerial vehicle. First, the optimal pair motor/propeller was selected using a global nonlinear optimization in order to maximize the specific efficiency of these components. Second, five energy storage technologies were sized in order to evaluate their influence on the aerial vehicle flight time. Finally, based on this sizing process, the optimized propulsion chain gross take-off weight (GTOW) was evaluated for each energy storage configuration using regression-based methods based on propulsion chain supplier data.

The concept of electric vertical take-off and landing (E-VTOL) aerial vehicles is gaining more and more attention, thanks to their non-polluting operation and simple air traffic management. Indeed, around the world, there are currently more than 500 projects that concern the development and improvement of their performances. Development of sizing methods for rapid selection of the propulsion chain components remains an important task in this process. In this paper, an approach for sizing and selecting the propulsion chain components of an E-VTOL aerial vehicle is developed and validated. First, the optimal pair motor/propeller is selected using a global nonlinear optimization in order to maximize the specific efficiency of these components. Second, two energy storage technologies are considered and sized in order to assess their influence on the aerial vehicle flight time. Finally, based on this sizing process, the optimized propulsion chain gross take-off weight (GTOW) is evaluated, using regression methods based on propulsion chain supplier data.