Descriptive analysis of viability of fuel saving in commercial aircraft through the application of photovoltaic cells

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThis paper presents the analysis of the technical feasibility to use a photovoltaic system to supply the electrical demand on two referential commercial aircraft, Airbus A340-300 and Cessna Conquest 441. The methodology approach comprises a process given by the selection of the photovoltaic technology, the calculation of the available solar radiation, the determination of the electrical demand, the layout definition of solar cells, the photovoltaic system capacity calculation, the estimation of the photovoltaic system weight, the estimation of fuel savings for photovoltaic system equipped aircrafts, and finally, the extrapolation of results to other aircrafts. The study concludes that the use of photovoltaic technology to supply power to the aircraft electrical system can result viable from the point of view of operational profitability, generating savings in fuel consumption. These fuel savings depend on the type of aircraft, the flying route and schedules of operation.

Energy Harvesting Technologies for Structural Health Monitoring of Airplane Components—A Review

“…Despite the fact that solar-powered airplane designs are generally striving at a different goal, typically requiring novel designs from the ground up, the findings made in this domain over the years are of considerable interest to evaluate the potential for solar-powered SHM systems. Some of the most relevant studies in this domain include those of Ramirez-Diaz et al [ 181 ] and Liscouet-Hanke et al [ 182 ], who investigated the potential for PV systems to be used as a power source to, at least partly, meet the electrical energy needs of commercial airplanes during operation. These studies show that the properties of PV devices, the external influences, and the potential integration of the technology into an airplane all have to be properly considered.…”

“…In fact, the expected output power is dependent on environmental factors, such as temperature, humidity, wind, and cloud coverage, as well as operational parameters such as geographical location, time of the day, day of the year, direction, and tilt. Although a number of these parameters can be considered, with more or less effort, in mission planning [ 181 , 182 ], an uncertainty and mission dependency remains. A potential PV system to be used for powering SHM sensor nodes in airplanes will, consequently, likely need to be over-dimensioned, particularly for most application scenarios in commercial flights.…”

“…A number of studies [ 181 , 182 , 187 , 188 ] make, in turn, use of models that take into account the movement of the airplane, and estimate the solar radiation on a surface of the airplane during a given mission. To evaluate the amount of energy that can be harvested under realistic conditions, a number of scenarios can then be evaluated, including flight and parking at different geographical locations and on different days.…”

Review of Power Device for Solar-Powered Aircraft Applications

“…The changeable phenomena of solar energy and mode of application of solar-powered aircraft makes it imperative to analyze the power components and to come out with robust energy management and operation to accomplish a nonstop flight of 48 h (Ramírez-Díaz et al 2015;Klöckner et al 2012). For aircraft powered by solar to attain a continuous flight, Energy Management…”

The Design and Preparation of Transparent Hybrid Composite Thin Films with Excellent Optical Properties and Improved Thermal Insulation by Optimized Combination of Nanomaterials

“…Human artificial environmental climate control of buildings and transportation systems through the utilization of air conditioning (AC) systems consumes considerable levels of the world's energy resources and is thus indicated as a significant contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. 1 Solutions devised to help reduce energy consumption such as the introduction of intelligent AC control systems with evolutionary algorithms 2 and the construction of new buildings and vehicles incorporating renewable and green energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV), 3 fuel cells (FC) 4 and reservoir Li-ion batteries 5 is being trialed. However, the current low conversion efficiencies and often inadequate on-demand peak power output from these new energy sources 6,7 means such additions do not constitute a complete and practical solution.…”