Multidisciplinary conceptual design for a hybrid-electric commuter aircraft

Nasoulis, Christos P.; Gkoutzamanis, Vasilis G.; Kalfas, A. I.

doi:10.1017/aer.2022.32

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…For that reason, an in-house, Python-based aircraft sizing tool is used, that follows the guidelines for conceptual design proposed by (Raymer, 2018). It is a weight-based sizing methodology, that has been modified appropriately to be applicable to configurations that have more than one energy sources, such as hybrid-electric powertrains, and is described in detail in (Nasoulis et al, 2022). It receives an input file containing the Top-Level Aircraft Requirements for the design and performs the aircraft sizing up to a 3 rd level of refinement, as stated in Raymer's methodology, calculating the basic dimensions of the components.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural optimization of the wing box for a hybrid-electric commuter aircraft

Nasoulis

Tsirikoglou

Kalfas

2022

J. Glob. Power Propuls. Soc.

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Hybrid-electric commuter aircraft segment is playing a significant role in the electrification of air transportation. Towards the achievement of efficient and robust transportation, design and optimization processes are necessary to evaluate the different aircraft components. Within this context, the current work investigates the impact of the positioning of the propulsion system and spars on the structural integrity of a hybrid-electric commuter aircraft. The proposed approach is based on an in-house aircraft sizing tool, along with geometry generation and high-fidelity structural evaluation models. These tools are tailored in an automated computational pipeline, that includes pre-processing, model evaluation and post-processing tasks, able to perform design space exploration and optimization over different loading conditions of a selected mission envelope. This work focuses on the assessment of the impact of the additional non-structural weight e.g., batteries, fuel, and propulsion components, inside the wing box, on the stress, deformation and spanwise thickness distribution of the structure. The effect of spars and propulsion system positioning on the available storage space, maximum stress and displacement is discussed, with the aft spar having the greatest impact. Finally, the structural model is optimized to minimize the mass, resulting in a 29% weight reduction, compared to the initial design.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural optimization of the wing box for a hybrid-electric commuter aircraft

Nasoulis

Tsirikoglou

Kalfas

2022

J. Glob. Power Propuls. Soc.

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“…The top-level aircraft requirements (TLAR) are selected according to the authors' previous work described in [11] and the mission profile used for the design evaluation is a simple mission profile…”

Section: Top-level Aircraft Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The specific power of electric motors and power electronics is selected in relevance to the work of Nasoulis et al [11] and Jansen et al [19], respectively, and is adjusted for the different EIS dates. The motors specific power examined in the timescale of 2027-2040 ranges from 6 to 16 kW/kg, considering that today's electric motors have a specific power of 5 kW/kg 1 (calculated for the maximum continuous power), whereas research suggests that this metric can reach up to 16 kW/kg for a partially superconducting wound field synchronous motor [19,20].…”

Section: Aircraft Powertrain Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to achieve motors with high specific power, research indicates that a higher number of pole counts, moderate shear stress and higher rotational speed are some of the advancements required, as specific power has a declining trend with power increase [21][22][23]. A more detailed analysis and review of the state-of-the-art, TRL and scalability challenges on electric propulsion components can be found in [9,11,24]. Finally, the gas turbine used in the reference aircraft shows similar efficiency and fuel consumption to PT6A-67D turboprop engine [25], whereas the gas turbines used in the hybrid-electric configurations are based on the reference, assuming a specific fuel consumption (SFC) reduction ranging from 8% to 27% for the various EIS dates.…”

Section: Aircraft Powertrain Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both conventional and hybrid aircraft follow the same TLAR, are sized for the same mission profile, and the powertrain units are sized for the OEI case. The maximum passenger number for a Level 4, CS-23 certified, normalcategory aircraft is 19, [17] while the maximum payload capacity is selected to be 1, 900kg, considering 100kg per passenger (87kg per person, and 13kg carry-on luggage) [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental and techno-economic evaluation for hybrid-electric propulsion architectures

et al. 2023

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Hybrid-electric propulsion is a promising alternative to sustainable aviation and is mainly considered for the commuter and regional aircraft class. However, the development of hybrid-electric propulsion variants is affected by the technology readiness level of electric components. The components’ technology will determine the electrification benefit, compared to a conventional aircraft, and will suggest which is the most beneficial variant and which has a closer entry into service date. Within this work, three different dates are explored, namely 2027, 2030 and 2040, to size three Parallel and three Series hybrid-electric architecture variants using an in-house aircraft sizing tool. All variants are compared to a conventional configuration sized using technological assumptions of 2014, with the main comparison metrics being the aircraft block fuel, energy consumption, direct operating cost and holistic environmental impact. On one hand, the Parallel configurations have reduced maximum take-off mass and mission energy consumption compared to the Series, however, the latter show a greater potential for block fuel reduction and require less onboard energy for the same mission. The annual operating cost evaluation indicates that the Parallel hybrid variant of 2030 has greater operational costs than the respective Series variant; however, it has reduced capital costs compared to the latter, making it more economical to operate considering both costs. Additionally, in the case of an energy recession, both hybrid variants of 2030 show a further cost reduction, with the Series having a total reduction of 10.4% excluding capital costs, compared to the reference aircraft. Moreover, the life cycle assessment shows that the Series variants have a lower environmental impact, both compared to the reference aircraft and the Parallel variants. The former could be up to 59.7% less detrimental to the environment than the reference aircraft, whereas the latter up to 23.9%, with the integration of renewable sources for electricity production. Finally, by the year 2040, the Series variant shows outstanding performance in all comparison metrics, compared to the Parallel and the reference aircraft.

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