This study presents an investigation on the integration of hybrid-electric propulsion on medium-haul aircraft with box-wing architecture. This investigation has been carried out to assess the potential of these two innovative technologies for reducing the environmental impact of transport aviation. Two different issues related to the emissions from aircraft operations have been analysed. The first issue, concerning the degradation of local air quality in airport areas, is related to aircraft operations near the ground, such as taxing, take-off, approach, and landing (Landing and Take-Off cycle, LTO). The second issue is related to the impact of aviation on climate change and involves the entire aircraft operating field. To face the two problems, two different and specific approaches of integrating hybrid-electric propulsion on the box-wing aircraft have been proposed. To address local air quality degradation, the hybrid propulsion system has been designed by considering the electric power completely dedicated to the LTO cycle, whereas the thermal power is used for non-LTO operations. Instead, a more general approach has been proposed to address the problem of climate-changing emissions, in which an optimisation procedure for power split management during flight has been used to search for cutting the overall fuel consumption. The results showed that using hybrid propulsion for a limited portion of the mission can provide favourable results when addressing the local air quality problem; theoretically, it is possible to perform LTO operations using only electric power, and thus without any direct pollutant emissions. The integration of hybrid-electric propulsion to minimise the overall fuel consumption, on the other hand, has shown unfavourable results. In particular, limited advantages in terms of block fuel are only obtained for very short distances of less than 1,000 kilometres, whereas fuel performance deteriorates for longer distances. This is mainly attributable to the performance of electric powertrain components, and especially to the low gravimetric energy density of batteries, which makes electric propulsion as an ineffective solution to the problem of reducing the total greenhouse emissions due to medium-haul aircraft.
CONCEPTUAL STUDY OF HYBRID-ELECTRIC BOX-WING AIRCRAFT TOWARDS THE REDUCTION OF AVIATION EFFECTS ON LOCAL AIR QUALITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
K. Abu Salem;V. Cipolla;G. Palaia;
2022-01-01
Abstract
This study presents an investigation on the integration of hybrid-electric propulsion on medium-haul aircraft with box-wing architecture. This investigation has been carried out to assess the potential of these two innovative technologies for reducing the environmental impact of transport aviation. Two different issues related to the emissions from aircraft operations have been analysed. The first issue, concerning the degradation of local air quality in airport areas, is related to aircraft operations near the ground, such as taxing, take-off, approach, and landing (Landing and Take-Off cycle, LTO). The second issue is related to the impact of aviation on climate change and involves the entire aircraft operating field. To face the two problems, two different and specific approaches of integrating hybrid-electric propulsion on the box-wing aircraft have been proposed. To address local air quality degradation, the hybrid propulsion system has been designed by considering the electric power completely dedicated to the LTO cycle, whereas the thermal power is used for non-LTO operations. Instead, a more general approach has been proposed to address the problem of climate-changing emissions, in which an optimisation procedure for power split management during flight has been used to search for cutting the overall fuel consumption. The results showed that using hybrid propulsion for a limited portion of the mission can provide favourable results when addressing the local air quality problem; theoretically, it is possible to perform LTO operations using only electric power, and thus without any direct pollutant emissions. The integration of hybrid-electric propulsion to minimise the overall fuel consumption, on the other hand, has shown unfavourable results. In particular, limited advantages in terms of block fuel are only obtained for very short distances of less than 1,000 kilometres, whereas fuel performance deteriorates for longer distances. This is mainly attributable to the performance of electric powertrain components, and especially to the low gravimetric energy density of batteries, which makes electric propulsion as an ineffective solution to the problem of reducing the total greenhouse emissions due to medium-haul aircraft.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
