Towards an Aircraft with Reduced Lateral Static Stability Using Differential Thrust

Van, Eric Nguyen; Alazard, Daniel; Pastor, Philippe; Döll, Carsten

doi:10.2514/6.2018-3209

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Advantages of HEP include emission-free missions or flight phases [1][2][3], optimization of powertrain efficiency through electrically-assisted propulsion [4], and the possibility to efficiently distribute power to different locations on the airframe. This last benefit is commonly referred to as distributed propulsion (DP) [5], which enables advanced propulsion-system layouts with increased aero-propulsive efficiency [6,7], reduced noise emissions through shielding [8], or enhanced high-lift [6,9] and control [10] capabilities. However, due to the battery weight penalty associated to many hybrid-electric powertrains, most design studies evaluate reduced ranges [2,3,11,12] or require battery technology levels which are inconceivable in the near future [13][14][15] in order to make these aircraft concepts viable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Sizing of a Hybrid-Electric Passenger Aircraft Featuring Over-the-Wing Distributed-Propulsion

Vries

Hoogreef

Vos

2019

AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum

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This study compares a hybrid-electric aircraft featuring a propulsive empennage and overthe-wing, distributed-propulsion to a conventional regional turboprop. The impact of multiple design parameters, mission requirements, and technology assumptions on maximum takeoff mass and payload-range energy efficiency is evaluated, in order to illustrate the sensitivities of the design. A preliminary sizing method that incorporates aero-propulsive interaction effects is used to obtain rapid estimations. Results show that, for the baseline mission, the hybridelectric variant is 2.5% heavier and consumes 2.5% more energy than the reference aircraft. In this process, several key design guidelines and challenges for distributed-propulsion aircraft are identified. Firstly, when comparing a hybrid-electric configuration to a conventional one, each aircraft must be sized at its optimum cruise altitude for the same payload and range requirements. Secondly, the hypothetical advantages of distributed propulsion described in literature do not easily lead to a benefit at aircraft level, if the aero-propulsive interaction effects and associated dependencies are incorporated in the design process. Thirdly, the power-control parameters affect practically all characteristics of the aircraft, and the optimal control strategy is highly dependent on the aero-propulsive interaction. The results suggest that the proposed configuration can constitute a low-noise alternative for the regional transport market if the performance of the over-the-wing distributed-propulsion system is optimized.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Sizing of a Hybrid-Electric Passenger Aircraft Featuring Over-the-Wing Distributed-Propulsion

Vries

Hoogreef

Vos

2019

AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum

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“…It is worth to mention that the evolution of the steady state gain as a function of δ v is close to linear. This effect was anticipated in [22] where it was shown that a variation of surface area at constant aspect ratio translates as a linear variation of lateral coefficients.…”

Section: Variation Of Vertical Tail Surface Area and Motor Bandwidthmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…with C L,v β the lift slope of a swept wing determined using Diederich formula for swept wing [8]. K F , K W and K H are corrective coefficients accounting respectively for the fuselage, the wing and the horizontal tail geometry and position [22], [23]. The advantage of this method lies in the fact that it is a direct method, allowing to modify the vertical tail geometry and update the aircraft aerodynamic coefficients rapidly.…”

Section: Aircraft Aerodynamic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous studies, it was found that a large directional flight envelop could be achieved using differential thrust, a reduced vertical tail without rudder, in normal and degraded flight conditions [22], [21]. This study was further advanced to dynamic consideration with the idea of assessing a lateral control without rudder, relying only on the differential use of the propulsion systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Co-design of aircraft vertical tail and control laws with distributed electric propulsion and flight envelop constraints

et al. 2020

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HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

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“…Nguyen Van et al [24,25] investigated differential thrust and vertical tail reduction through flight envelope and stability analysis, without aero-propulsive interactions or dynamic simulations. The main aim of these studies was to develop a methodology to size the vertical tailplane for reduced lateral static stability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flight dynamics and control assessment for differential thrust aircraft in engine inoperative conditions including aero-propulsive effects

Hoogreef

Soikkeli²

2022

CEAS Aeronaut J

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Differential thrust can be used for directional control on distributed electric propulsion aircraft. This paper presents an assessment of flight dynamics and control under engine inoperative conditions at minimum control speed for a typical distributed propulsion aircraft employing differential thrust. A methodology consisting of an aerodynamic data acquisition module and a non-linear six-degrees-of-freedom flight dynamics model is proposed. Directional control is achieved using a controller to generate a yaw command, which is distributed to the propulsors through a thrust mapping approach. A modified version of the NASA X-57 aircraft is selected for case studies, where the engine inoperative condition is considered to impact the three leftmost propulsors during climb at minimum control speed. The objective also includes the assessment of the impact of the aero-propulsive coupling for such an aircraft during a failure case. Results show that during the recovery manoeuvre, the aircraft experiences a 78% reduction in total thrust and 30% reduction in total lift caused by the aggressive yaw control effort required to control the heading of the aircraft. Consequently, the powered-stall speed is increased, and the aircraft temporarily loses altitude during the recovery manoeuvre. Differential thrust provides sufficient yaw authority during the engine inoperative condition, and is, therefore, seen to potentially replace the functionality of the rudder for the climb condition that was studied. Additionally, reduction of the vertical tail area was explored and seen to be possible if the response time of the system is low enough. For the studied configuration, this required a response within 400 ms for reduced vertical tail areas.

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Towards an Aircraft with Reduced Lateral Static Stability Using Differential Thrust

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

Preliminary Sizing of a Hybrid-Electric Passenger Aircraft Featuring Over-the-Wing Distributed-Propulsion

Preliminary Sizing of a Hybrid-Electric Passenger Aircraft Featuring Over-the-Wing Distributed-Propulsion

Co-design of aircraft vertical tail and control laws with distributed electric propulsion and flight envelop constraints

Flight dynamics and control assessment for differential thrust aircraft in engine inoperative conditions including aero-propulsive effects

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