Design and Performance of the NASA SCEPTOR Distributed Electric Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

Borer, Nicholas K.; Patterson, Michael D.; Viken, Jeffrey K.; Moore, Mark D.; Clarke, Sean; Redifer, Matthew; Christie, Robert; Stoll, Alex M.; DuBois, Arthur B.; Bevirt, JoeBen; Gibson, Andrew; Foster, Trevor; Osterkamp, Philip G.

doi:10.2514/6.2016-3920

Cited by 186 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

109

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The details of the overall configuration and the design process followed to develop this configuration will be published in a companion AIAA Aviation 2016 paper by Borer et al 21 For the purposes of the present study, the following geometric parameters are all that are required to be known:…”

Section: A Design Assumptions and Sceptor Aircraft Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Lift Propeller System Configuration Selection for NASA's SCEPTOR Distributed Electric Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

Patterson

Derlaga

Borer

2016

16th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although the primary function of propellers is typically to produce thrust, aircraft equipped with distributed electric propulsion (DEP) may utilize propellers whose main purpose is to act as a form of high-lift device. These "high-lift propellers" can be placed upstream of wing such that, when the higher-velocity flow in the propellers' slipstreams interacts with the wing, the lift is increased. This technique is a main design feature of a new NASA advanced design project called Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research (SCEPTOR). The goal of the SCEPTOR project is design, build, and fly a DEP aircraft to demonstrate that such an aircraft can be much more efficient than conventional designs. This paper provides details into the high-lift propeller system configuration selection for the SCEPTOR flight demonstrator. The methods used in the high-lift propeller system conceptual design and the tradeoffs considered in selecting the number of propellers are discussed. Nomenclaturec chord length C i coefficient row vector for β surrogate model c l section lift coefficient C D0 parasite drag coefficient c i,j scalar coefficient value for β surrogate model D drag i p propeller slipstream inclination angle K L lift multiplier (i.e., ratio of blown to unblown lift) L lift L lift per unit span R radius T thrust u distance of disk upstream of wing leading edge V velocity w induced velocity from point vortex X column vector for β surrogate model, 1 u/cT α angle of attack β velocity multiplier or twist angle of local blade element Γ circulation ρ density θ swirl swirl angle

show abstract

Section: A Design Assumptions and Sceptor Aircraft Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Lift Propeller System Configuration Selection for NASA's SCEPTOR Distributed Electric Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

Patterson

Derlaga

Borer

2016

16th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As mentioned previously, we chose the Tecnam p2006t aircraft because of the work already being done to exchange the two engines for electric motors [54]. Our intent is to show the conceptual feasibility of electrifying an existing aircraft as a possible near term solution to the urban ODM problem, thus potentially simplifying certification and safety requirements.…”

Section: B Baseline Aircraftmentioning

confidence: 99%

Takeoff and Performance Trade-Offs of Retrofit Distributed Electric Propulsion for Urban Transport

Moore

Ning

2019

Journal of Aircraft

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While vertical takeoff and landing aircraft have shown promise for urban air transport, distributed electric propulsion on existing aircraft may offer immediately implementable alternatives. Distributed electric propulsion could potentially decrease takeoff distances enough to enable thousands of potential inter-city runways. This conceptual study explores the effects of a retrofit of open-bladed electric propulsion units. To model and explore the design space we use blade element momentum method, vortex lattice method, linear-beam finite element analysis, classical laminate theory, composite failure, empirically-based blade noise modeling, motor and motor-controller mass models, and gradient-based optimization. With liftoff time of seconds and the safe total field length for this aircraft type undefined, we focused on the minimum conceptual takeoff distance. We found that 16 propellers could reduce the takeoff distance by over 50% compared to the optimal 2 propeller case. This resulted in a conceptual minimum takeoff distance of 20.5 meters to clear a 50 ft (15.24 m) obstacle. We also found that when decreasing the allowable noise by approximately 10 dBa, the 8 propeller case performed the best with a 43% reduction in takeoff distance compared to the optimal 2 propeller case. This resulted in a noise-restricted conceptual minimum takeoff distance of 95 meters.

show abstract

“…Distributed propulsion may in fact contain a suite of integrated aerodynamic-propulsion concepts. NASA's X-57 "Maxwell" flight demonstrator [8], developed under the Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology Operations Research (SCEPTOR) project, will demonstrate distributed propulsion technologies integrated with electric motors, in a technology suite dubbed Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP). The X-57 "Mod 4" variant, shown in Figure 1, leverages two different types of distributed propulsion concepts across 14 electric propulsors.…”

Section: A Distributed Electric Propulsion For Nasa's X-57 Flight Dementioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Aero-Propulsive Performance Predictions for Distributed Propulsion Configurations

Borer

Derlaga

Deere

et al. 2017

55th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

NASA's X-57 "Maxwell" flight demonstrator incorporates distributed electric propulsion technologies in a design that will achieve a significant reduction in energy used in cruise flight. A substantial portion of these energy savings come from beneficial aerodynamicpropulsion interaction. Previous research has shown the benefits of particular instantiations of distributed propulsion, such as the use of wingtip-mounted cruise propellers and leading edge high-lift propellers. However, these benefits have not been reduced to a generalized design or analysis approach suitable for large-scale design exploration. This paper discusses the rapid, "design-order" toolchains developed to investigate the large, complex tradespace of candidate geometries for the X-57. Due to the lack of an appropriate, rigorous set of validation data, the results of these tools were compared to three different computational flow solvers for selected wing and propulsion geometries. The comparisons were conducted using a common input geometry, but otherwise different input grids and, when appropriate, different flow assumptions to bound the comparisons. The results of these studies showed that the X-57 distributed propulsion wing should be able to meet the as-designed performance in cruise flight, while also meeting or exceeding targets for high-lift generation in low-speed flight.

show abstract

Design and Performance of the NASA SCEPTOR Distributed Electric Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

Cited by 186 publications

References 18 publications

High-Lift Propeller System Configuration Selection for NASA's SCEPTOR Distributed Electric Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

High-Lift Propeller System Configuration Selection for NASA's SCEPTOR Distributed Electric Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

Takeoff and Performance Trade-Offs of Retrofit Distributed Electric Propulsion for Urban Transport

Comparison of Aero-Propulsive Performance Predictions for Distributed Propulsion Configurations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About