Conceptual Assessment of Hybrid Electric Aircraft with Distributed Propulsion and Boosted Turbofans

This paper presents the results of a study into the effect of distributed hybrid-electric propulsion on aircraft performance and characteristics. To size these aircraft, a new preliminary sizing method for hybrid-electric aircraft with distributed propulsion, including aero-propulsive interaction, is combined with a modified Class-II weight estimation method where energy consumption is estimated through a mission analysis method. Comparison of the predictions from these new methods to the predictions from a traditional sizing method has shown to be within 5% agreement for a single-aisle aircraft powered by conventional turbofans in terms of wing loading, energy consumption and maximum take-off weight. A boosted turbofan aircraft as well as two aircraft with different distributed, hybrid-electric propulsion systems have been assessed for a 150-pax aircraft designed for a harmonic range of 800nmi. Each of these aircraft designs showed significant increases in propulsion system mass (up to 700%). The distributedpropulsion aircraft showed increases in energy consumption of 34% and 51%, respectively, over the conventional turbofan aircraft. However, the boosted-turbofan aircraft showed a 10% decrease in energy consumption and a 3% reduction in maximum take-off weight. Future studies have to be performed exploring the design space, including all powertrain components, thermal management components, mission parameters and propulsion system layout.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Flight Performance and Propulsio