The Potential and Challenge of TurboElectric Propulsion for Subsonic Transport Aircraft

Gibson, Andrew; Hall, David K.; Waters, Mark; Masson, Philippe; Schiltgen, Benjamin; Foster, Trevor; Keith, John A.

doi:10.2514/6.2010-276

Cited by 25 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…A potential alternative is to carry a supply of liquid hydrogen that cools the cryogenic components before being mixed with the fuel and combusted within the engines. However, this option poses configuration, safety and infrastructure challenges and is also not suitable for systems which cannot use the hydrogen as a fuel source (Gibson et al, 2010). In either case, the low technology readiness level and high cost of superconducting machines can make the option prohibitive.…”

Section: Impact On Design Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and opportunities for electric aircraft thermal management

Freeman

Osterkamp

Green

et al. 2014

Aircraft Eng & Aerospace Tech

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Purpose -The purpose of this article is to provide an outline of the challenges of thermal management for more-electric, hybrid-electric and all-electric aircraft, and to notionally discuss potential solutions. Design/methodology/approach -A code algorithm was developed to facilitate architecture-level analysis of the coupled relationship between the propulsion system, the thermal management system, and the takeoff gross weight of aircraft with advanced propulsion systems. Findings -A variety of coupled relationships between the propulsion and thermal management systems are identified, and their impact on the conceptual design choices for electric aircraft are discussed qualitatively. Research limitations/implications -This conceptual article merely illuminates some driving factors associated with thermal management. The software is still in its adolescence and is experiencing ongoing development. Practical implications -Thermal regulation in electric aircraft is shown to be a topic that should be addressed in tandem with propulsion system architecture definition and component selection. High-power electronics are expected to emit an immense amount of heat, and the common avenues of heat dissipation could substantially impact the aircraft's weight, drag and performance. Conversely, strategic management of this waste heat could support subsystems or even produce additional thrust. Social implications -This paper aims to direct the attention of researchers and designers in the field of hybrid-or all-electric aircraft design toward the challenges and potential benefits of thermal management. Originality/value -This paper describes a novel conceptual design software and discusses its logic flow and implications.

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Section: Impact On Design Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and opportunities for electric aircraft thermal management

Freeman

Osterkamp

Green

et al. 2014

Aircraft Eng & Aerospace Tech

Self Cite

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“…In published literature on the early design of such aircraft, there is evidence that research into strategic application of electrical FM has still to be considered in detail [5]. In cases where electrical FM is considered as part of electrical power architecture design and proof of concept studies, this is done to better estimate system weight and losses, with demonstrations of the feasibility of the approaches or estimates of availability of underpinning technology deferred to further study [6], [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Fault Management-Oriented Early-Design Framework for Electrical Propulsion Aircraft

Flynn

Jones

Norman

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Transp. Electrific.

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Electrical propulsion has been identified as a key enabler of greener, quieter, more efficient aircraft. However, electrical propulsion aircraft will need to demonstrate a level of safety and reliability at least equal to current aircraft to be a viable alternative. Therefore, a robust and reliable fault management system is needed to prevent electrical faults causing loss of propulsion and critical flight functions. To date, fault management of the electrical propulsion system has not been considered in detail for future electrical propulsion aircraft, nor has it been effectively integrated into the electrical architecture design. This poses a risk that the proposed electrical architectures will be infeasible from a fault management perspective, and key fault management technologies may not be sufficiently developed. Therefore, a methodology to incorporate fault management into the early stages of design of electrical architectures is required to determine viable fault management solutions for a given electrical propulsion aircraft concept. This paper describes a novel, systems-level electrical architecture design framework for electrical propulsion aircraft which incorporates fault management from the outset. This methodology captures the significant assumptions in the design and acknowledges the novel interfaces which exist between the electrical, conceptual and fault management design of electrical propulsion aircraft.

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“…11 Based on the above two configurations, extensive researches on DPC have been carried out to demonstrate the advanced designs, performance improvement, practicality, and potentiality of the distributed propulsion system. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] As the important feature of DPC, BLI effect and the aerodynamic performance of a propulsion system were investigated by Plas. 29 A quantitative experiment on the ''silent aircraft'' showed that fuel consumption can be reduced by 3.8% due to the BLI effect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated flight/propulsion optimal control for DPC aircraft based on the GA-RPS algorithm

Zhang

Kang

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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The new distributed propulsion configuration (DPC) can effectively improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollution, but also brings in special cross-coupling effects between the flight and propulsion systems. To tackle this problem, integrated flight/propulsion modeling and optimal control of DPC with boundary layer ingestion (BLI) and supercirculation features are systematically investigated. As the basis, by taking the inherent BLI and supercirculation features into consideration, an integrated flight/propulsion model of SAX-40 is built to reflect the actual complex engine-aircraft coupling effects. Then an integrated flight/propulsion optimal control scheme is proposed to deal with the strong coupling effects and to implement the comprehensive control of redundant control surfaces as well as the distributed engines. Under this scheme, a detailed description of the optimal control problem is presented, and a novel two-stage optimization algorithm named genetic algorithm-random pattern search (GA-RPS) is proposed to solve this complex optimal problem. By the new strategies of ''parallel genetic algorithm computing in sub-regions'' and ''random pattern search'' in the GA-RPS algorithm, the optimization accuracy and convergence speed are effectively improved. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the GA-RPS algorithm and the significant performance improvement to DPC by optimization.

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The Potential and Challenge of TurboElectric Propulsion for Subsonic Transport Aircraft

Cited by 25 publications

References 1 publication

Challenges and opportunities for electric aircraft thermal management

Challenges and opportunities for electric aircraft thermal management

A Fault Management-Oriented Early-Design Framework for Electrical Propulsion Aircraft

Integrated flight/propulsion optimal control for DPC aircraft based on the GA-RPS algorithm

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