Investigation of the Static Longitudinal Characteristics of a Full-Scale Light Single-Engine Airplane using a Surface Vorticity Solver

This paper demonstrates parametric definition and sizing of all-electric and hybrid-electric variants of a dual-purpose ducted fan lift-plus-cruise aircraft configuration. The dual roles include passenger transportation for urban air mobility as well as transportation of supplies and personnel for military applications. The impact of battery technology on the characteristics of the sized all-electric and hybrid-electric variants is analyzed. For the latter, turboshaft engines are incorporated to satisfy cruise power requirements and offset peak power requirements during vertical flight, at the expense of additional propulsion system weight. The net impact of this penalty is investigated as a function of battery technology and range. The aircraft is sized and analyzed using the Parametric Energy-based Aircraft Configuration Evaluator, a sizing framework utilizing a parametric geometry definition and resizing rule set for the aircraft, strip-theory-based aeropropulsive models, energy-based mission performance analysis, and a combination of empirical and physics-based mass properties analyses.

Design and Sizing of an Electrified Lift-Plus-Cruise Ducted Fan Aircraft

Chakraborty¹,

Mishra²,

Dommelen³

et al. 2023

Sizing of Tilt-Wing Aircraft with All-Electric and Hybrid-Electric Propulsion

Chakraborty

Mishra

2023

This paper demonstrates integrated vehicle and propulsion system sizing and performance analysis using Parametric Energy-Based Aircraft Configuration Evaluator, an aircraft sizing methodology and framework integrating discipline analyses for aerodynamics, propulsion, and weight estimation with parametric geometry definition, resizing, and energy-based mission performance analyses. The framework is used to demonstrate vehicle and propulsion system sizing and analysis for a vertical takeoff and landing tilt-wing urban air mobility aircraft family with two variants. The first variant features an all-electric propulsion system architecture, while the second variant features a hybrid-electric architecture in which turbogenerators are used to supply cruise power requirements, offset battery power draw in vertical flight, and recharge the batteries. Both variants are sized for a representative urban air mobility mission profile while considering varying battery technology levels and trip distances.

Optimization of Lift-Plus-Cruise Vertical Take-Off and Landing Aircraft with Electrified Propulsion

Bhandari,

Aman Mishra,

Chakraborty

2024

Conventional aircraft sizing methods face challenges in analyzing all-electric or hybrid-electric novel aircraft configurations, such as those for urban air mobility applications. The vast design space containing both continuous and discrete design variables and competing design objectives necessitates searching for not necessarily a unique optimal design but rather an array of Pareto-optimal designs. This paper uses the Parametric Energy-Based Aircraft Configuration Evaluator, an aircraft sizing framework for novel aircraft and propulsion system architectures, to pursue multi-objective optimization of a lift-plus-cruise urban air mobility aircraft with all-electric, hybrid-electric, and turbo-electric propulsion system architectures using Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II. The optimization cases considered include multiple objective functions, such as maximum takeoff mass, mission time, energy and propulsion mass fraction, and energy used per unit distance per unit payload. Optimization was performed for trip distances of 80, 120, and 150 km and battery specific energy levels of 350 and 400 Wh/kg. Except when mission time was an objective function, Pareto-optimal designs occurred near the lower bound of the velocity range. Raising that bound had an impact on the architectural composition of the final generation. All-electric architectures appeared exclusively for lower trip distances, hybrid-electric designs appeared for longer trip distances, and turbo-electric designs only appeared for combinations of longer trip distances, a higher minimum cruise speed, and a lower battery specific energy level. The sizing results were sensitive to assumptions regarding the overload capacity of lift propulsor motors in postfailure conditions.