Multidisciplinary design optimization of blended-wing-body transport aircraft with distributed propulsion

Leifsson, Leifur; Ko, Andy; Mason, William H.; Schetz, Joseph A.; Grossman, Bernard; Haftka, R. T.

doi:10.1016/j.ast.2011.12.004

Cited by 65 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The distributed propulsion is a revolutionary technology that seeks to reduce the noise and weight of an aircraft by means of replacing large propulsors with a moderate amount of small ones along the airframe [16] as depicted in Figure 1. This offers the possibility of increasing the propulsive efficiency because a larger propulsive area is considered, which in turn, implies a lower jet velocity.…”

Section: Uav Design Methodology 21 Distributed Electric Propulsionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This baseline configuration has been selected based on previous research [11], where it has been found that BWB configurations offer high volumetric efficiency while providing good aerodynamic performance [12] as a result of the elliptical lift distribution improvement over the whole airframe [13][14][15]. Furthermore, the BWB model facilitates the integration of different propulsion architectures, which results in a broader spectrum of configurations for distributed propulsion [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wetland Monitoring Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Electrical Distributed Propulsion Systems

Valencia¹,

Alulema²,

Rodriguez³

2019

Propulsion Systems

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The inspection of wetlands in the Ecuadorian highlands has gained importance due to the environmental issues linked to the growth of human activities and the expansion of the agricultural and livestock frontiers. In this sense, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been amply used in monitoring activities such as the supervision of threatened ecosystems, where cyclic measurements and high-resolution imagery are needed. However, the harsh operating conditions in the Andean highlands and sensitive ecosystem restrictions demand efficient propulsion configurations with low environmental impact. Electrical distributed propulsion (EDP) systems have surged as a forefront alternative since they offer benefits in both the propulsive and aerodynamic performance of fixed-wing UAVs. In this chapter, an EDP system is sized for a design point at the Andean operating conditions. Thereafter, two propulsion configurations were established based on off-the-shelf components, and their performance was characterized through analytical approaches. These results highlight the trends in power consumption and performance when the number of propulsors is increased. A significant contribution of this work is to exhibit important patterns in the performance of electric propulsion by using commercial components, and to set the operating limitations that can be further explored for analogous configurations in larger UAVs.

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Section: Uav Design Methodology 21 Distributed Electric Propulsionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland Monitoring Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Electrical Distributed Propulsion Systems

Valencia¹,

Alulema²,

Rodriguez³

2019

Propulsion Systems

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“…In this case the main engines weight has been modelled with the approach developed in ref. 16 , which enables to scale the weight of the engine based on the sea level thrust. The simple equation 7 enabled to quantitatively establish the difference between smaller and larger engines, which is good enough for the weight analysis used in this study.…”

Section: Weight Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Point Analysis of an Hybrid Fuel Cell Gas Turbine Cycle for Advanced Distributed Propulsion Systems

Valencia¹,

Hidalgo²,

Laskaridis³

et al. 2015

51st AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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The performance benefits of boundary layer ingestion in the case of air vehicles powered by distributed propulsors have been documented and explored extensively in numerous studies. Therefore, it is well known that increased inlet flow distortion and associated pressure losses due to boundary layer ingestion (BLI) can dramatically reduce these benefits. Additionally the high power required by the distributed propulsors implies large electrical components for generation and transmission which compromise the possible configurations for TeDP systems with BLI. In order to reduce the aforementioned aerodynamic integration aspects and the high power demands of TeDP systems alternative configurations which split he thrust between the propulsor unit and the turbofans have been investigated. In this work the potential benefits and challenges that an alternative thermodynamic cycle based on an hybrid gas turbine with SOFC's implemented in an optimum TeDP system with BLI using thrust split is assessed. For this preliminary analysis simplified parametric models for fuel cells, gas turbines and weight have been used to capture important trends in the implementation of this cycle. The results obtained at design point conditions has shown that the implementation of this cycle and the use of liquid hydrogen for fuel and coolant could contribute to reduce by 70 % the T SF C before iterating and resizing. However, as main challenges for the implementation of this system arise hydrogen storage issues and the weight increment of the propulsion system due to the use of fuel cells. This latter parameter was observed to increase by 40 % before iterating and resizing. Furthermore, it was found that the use of thrust split could be beneficial to find an optimum configuration which presents a trade-off between the T SF C reduction and weight increment. Finally, it has been found that the synergistic advantages of the hybrid Brayton cycle and fuel cells with the TeDP system may offer opportunities for the performance improvement of the whole propulsion system. Nomenclature AArea, m 2 E

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“…The 2014 final report demonstrated that hybrid SUGAR Volt could meet the NASA goals regarding fuel burn [10]. Several academic studies [11,12] demonstrated that distributed propulsion could provide substantial performance benefits to blended-wing-body transport aircraft.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sizing of hybrid electric propulsion system for retrofitting a mid-scale aircraft using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm

Xie

Chai

Tsourdos

2018

Aerospace Science and Technology

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The paper presents the sizing of a hybrid electric propulsion system for a prototype aircraft. The main contribution of the paper is to apply multi-objective optimization in the retrofit of a mid-scale aircraft and investigate the fuel economy of the hybrid aircraft for a particular mission cycle. Using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA), the fuel consumptions for different flight durations are minimized, which represent the optimal trade-off between fuel consumption and flight duration. With no compromise on endurance and range, the maximum fuel reduction of the retrofitted hybrid aircraft reaches 17.6%, by comparison with the prototype aircraft. The retrofitted aircraft achieves better cruising and climbing performance with the sized hybrid propulsion system. The novelty of the study is the proposal of a new non-dominated sorting algorithm-Benchmark based Non-Dominated Sort (BNDS) for the NSGA. BNDS can reduce the number of comparisons and the time complexity of the non-dominated sorting process. A constraint handling approach is also integrated into the BNDS/NSGA to address performance and mission requirements.

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Multidisciplinary design optimization of blended-wing-body transport aircraft with distributed propulsion

Abstract: 2016-12-24T18:18:19

Cited by 65 publications

References 26 publications

Wetland Monitoring Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Electrical Distributed Propulsion Systems

Wetland Monitoring Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Electrical Distributed Propulsion Systems

Design Point Analysis of an Hybrid Fuel Cell Gas Turbine Cycle for Advanced Distributed Propulsion Systems

Sizing of hybrid electric propulsion system for retrofitting a mid-scale aircraft using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm

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