THEA-CODE: a design tool for the conceptual design of hybrid-electric aircraft with conventional or unconventional airframe configurations

Palaia, Giuseppe; Zanetti, Davide; Salem, Karim Abu; Cipolla, Vittorio; Binante, Vincenzo

doi:10.1051/meca/2021012

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…In addition to the incremental improvement of the state-of-the-art technologies currently used to design and produce transport aircraft, industry and research are exploring disruptive technologies, both in the field of propulsion and in the exploration of novel airframe configurations, to face these demanding challenges [6]. In the field of propulsion, major efforts are focused on the development of hybrid or electric propulsion systems [7][8][9], thus favouring the increasing use of electric energy or hydrogen in place of fossil fuels. As far as innovative configurations are concerned [10][11][12], different solutions have been proposed, and many of these are currently under study; the Blended Wing Body [13,14] and Joined Wing [15] configurations are worthy of mention in this field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tools and methodologies for box-wing aircraft conceptual aerodynamic design and aeromechanic analysis

Salem

Palaia

Cipolla

et al. 2021

Mechanics & Industry

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A way to face the challenge of moving towards a new greener aviation is to exploit disruptive aircraft architectures; one of the most promising concept is the PrandtlPlane, a box-wing aircraft based on the Prandtl's studies on multiplane lifting systems. A box-wing designed accordingly the Prandtl “best wing system” minimizes the induced drag for given lift and span, and thus it has the potential to reduce fuel consumption and noxious emissions. For disruptive aerodynamic concepts, physic-based aerodynamic design is needed from the very early stages of the design process, because of the lack of available statistical data; this paper describes two different in-house developed aerodynamic design tools for the PrandtlPlane conceptual aerodynamic design: AEROSTATE, for the design of the box-wing lifting system in cruise condition, and THeLMA, aiming to define the layout of control surfaces and high lift devices. These two tools have been extensively used to explore the feasible space for the aerodynamic design of the box-wing architecture, aiming to define preliminary correlations between performance and design variables, and guidelines to properly initialize the design process. As a result, relevant correlations have been identified between the rear-front wing loading ratio and the performance in cruise condition, and for the rear-front flap deflections and the aeromechanic characteristics in low speed condition.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tools and methodologies for box-wing aircraft conceptual aerodynamic design and aeromechanic analysis

Salem

Palaia

Cipolla

et al. 2021

Mechanics & Industry

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“…• conceptual design methods for Hybrid-Electric Propulsion (HEP) aircraft are presented in [29], focusing on the case of the PrP regional aircraft studied in the project "PROSIB". In this case, AEROSTATE is involved in the design workflow shown in Fig.…”

Section: State Of the Art Of Box-wing Structural Mass Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Concerning these latter, the project focuses on box-wing aircraft design as well as on the development of design tools and methodologies for such purpose ( [29]). As Table 17 shows, a box-wing 40 pax regional aircraft has been designed, also considering the possible integration of a Distributed Electric Propulsion system on the front wing.…”

Section: Application To Regional Box-wing Aircraft Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

A DoE-based approach for the implementation of structural surrogate models in the early stage design of box-wing aircraft

Cipolla

Salem

Palaia

et al. 2021

Aerospace Science and Technology

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One of the possible ways to face the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of aviation, without limiting the growth of air transport, is the introduction of more efficient, radically different aircraft architectures. Among these, the box-wing one represents a promising solution, at least in the case of its application to short-to-medium haul aircraft, which, according to the achievement of the H2020 project "PARSIFAL", would bring to a 20% reduction in terms of emitted CO2 per passengerkilometre. The present paper faces the problem of estimating the structural mass of such a disruptive configuration in the early stages of the design, underlining the limitations in this capability of the approaches available by literature and proposing a DoE-based approach to define surrogate models suitable for such purpose. A test case from the project "PARSIFAL" is used for the first conception of the approach, starting from the Finite Element Model parametrization, then followed by the construction of a database of FEM results, hence introducing the regression models and implementing them in an optimization framework. Results achieved are investigated in order to

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“…Meeting the growing demand for flights and reducing the environmental impact of air transportation seem to be contrasting objectives of aviation research and industry; a possible way to face this problem is to explore and study disruptive technologies, both in the field of propulsion and aircraft design. Regarding propulsion, several studies are dedicated to the analysis and design of new types of engines, alternative to the conventional internal combustion one, such as hybrid and electrical powertrains [12][13][14][15][16][17]; also, alternative energy sources to fossil fuels, such as hydrogen [18][19][20][21] or biofuels [22][23][24], are currently under study. Regarding aircraft development, studies have been conducted on the optimisation of the tube-andwing aircraft to reach the maximum potential of the conventional configuration [25][26][27][28], but great effort is currently dedicated to the study and development of new unconventional architectures [29][30][31][32][33][34], such as the blended wing-body configuration [35][36][37] or the joined wings architecture [38,39], which may represent a real breakthrough in aircraft evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This configuration has been extensively studied in the PAR-SIFAL project [47,48], a research project funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Horizon2020 program. [43], executive class (centre) [49], hybrid electric regional airliner (right) [15]. Some of the main challenges that will be faced by aeronautical research in the near future are summarised in Table 1, together with some general possible solutions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Physics-Based Multidisciplinary Approach for the Preliminary Design and Performance Analysis of a Medium Range Aircraft with Box-Wing Architecture

et al. 2021

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The introduction of disruptive innovations in the transport aviation sector is becoming increasingly necessary. This is because there are many very demanding challenges that the transport aviation system will have to face in the years ahead. In particular, the reduction in pollutant emissions from air transport, and its impact on climate change, clearly must be addressed; moreover, sustainable solutions must be found to meet the constantly increasing demand for air traffic, and to reduce the problem of airport saturation at the same time. These three objectives seem to be in strong contrast with each other; in this paper, the introduction of a disruptive airframe configuration, called PrandtlPlane and based on a box-wing lifting system, is proposed as a solution to face these three challenges. This configuration is a more aerodynamically efficient alternative candidate to conventional aircraft, introducing benefits in terms of fuel consumption and providing the possibility to increase the payload without enlarging the overall aircraft wingspan. The development and analysis of this configuration, applied to a short-to-medium range transport aircraft, is carried out through a multi-fidelity physics-based approach. In particular, following an extensive design activity, the aerodynamic performance in different operating conditions is investigated in detail, the structural behaviour of the lifting system is assessed, and the operating missions of the aircraft are simulated. The same analysis methodologies are used to evaluate the performance of a benchmark aircraft with conventional architecture, with the aim of making direct comparisons with the box-wing aircraft and quantifying the performance differences between the two configurations. Namely, the CeRAS CSR-01, an open-access virtual representation of an A320-like aircraft, is selected as the conventional benchmark. Following such a comparative approach, the paper provides an assessment of the potential benefits of box-wing aircraft in terms of fuel consumption reduction and increase in payload capability. In particular, an increase in payload capability of 66% and a reduction in block fuel per pax km up to 22% is achieved for the PrandtlPlane with respect to the conventional benchmark, while maintaining the same maximum wingspan.

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THEA-CODE: a design tool for the conceptual design of hybrid-electric aircraft with conventional or unconventional airframe configurations

Cited by 25 publications

References 17 publications

Tools and methodologies for box-wing aircraft conceptual aerodynamic design and aeromechanic analysis

Tools and methodologies for box-wing aircraft conceptual aerodynamic design and aeromechanic analysis

A DoE-based approach for the implementation of structural surrogate models in the early stage design of box-wing aircraft

A Physics-Based Multidisciplinary Approach for the Preliminary Design and Performance Analysis of a Medium Range Aircraft with Box-Wing Architecture

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