Investigation of propulsion architectures for advanced distributed propulsion systems
- Format
- DoctoralThesis
- Status
- publishedVersion
- Description
Growing environmental awareness and increasing air tra?c have encouraged the investigation of aircraft concepts with low environmental impact. To achieve this, ambitious performance targets have been de?ned progressively by organizations as NASA and ACARE. In this context, a promising aircraft concept denominated the N3-X has been developed by NASA and in order to attain the performance targets set for the N+3 timeframe (2030) this implements innovative features such as: turboelectric distributed propulsion, boundary layer ingestion, HTS electrical equipment and blended wing body airframe. Although each technology presents potential bene?ts in terms of performance, they also bring new challenges. For instance, the use of a propulsor array over the airframe could represent a fuel burn saving of 8 % relative to today?s aircraft and BLI could add to this an extra 7-8 % bene?t assuming well designed intakes. From the propulsion performance perspective, the aerodynamic integration between airframe and distributed propulsors emerge as main limitation. Integration issues such as intake pressure losses and BLI induced distortion have shown to dramatically mitigate the propulsor performance and hence to reduce the aforementioned bene?ts. In this investigation a methodology which enables to broad the spectrum of propulsion system designs, while accounting for the aforementioned issues in the system analysis is developed. In this methodology the systems, variables and parameters involved in the future aircraft concept are identi?ed and then di?erent propulsion architectures are assessed. One of the modules implemented in this methodology is the distortion tool, which enabled the assessment of BLI induced distortion in the propulsion system analysis. This tool was aimed for preliminary design and therefore it intended to be able to assess BLI type distortion, whilst keeping low consumption of computing resources. In the context of reducing aerodynamic integration issues, the present work has assessed two alternative propulsor designs and has investigated the implementation of thrust split between main engine and propulsor unit. The propulsion architectures assessed demonstrated that reducing the thrust delivered by the propulsor unit (60-80 %) could be favourable to reduce the issues related with the aerodynamic integration of propulsors and the technology development of HTS and cooling equipment. Finally, alternative thermodynamic cycles, which presented higher synergies with this advanced propulsion concept were explored in order to enhance its e?ectiveness.
- Publication Year
- 2015
- Language
- eng
- Topic
- SISTEMAS DE PROPULSI?N
PROPULSI?N DISTRIBUIDA
CICLOS H?BRIDOS
PROPULSI?N
- Repository
- Repositorio SENESCYT
- Rights
- openAccess
- License