Investigation of the benefits of a parallel-hybrid electric architecture in NOx,CO and H2O emissions in the LTO cycle for regional turboprop

Air traffic is expected to grow in the next decades, and with it, aircraft emissions are likely to increase. Hybrid-electric propulsion has been investigated as a concept that could address this problem by potentially bring fuel-saving and emissions reduction. This research assesses whether an electrically assisted regional turboprop aircraft could reduce exhaust emission gases in the LTO cycle. A mission analysis routine was developed to estimate the aircraft's performance throughout a 1000 Km mission. Moreover, it was built a turboprop engine model that computes accurate engine performance and a simplified electrical system model to estimate its weight with the power requirements. The degree of hybridization (percentage of electric power provided) was varied from 10 to 100 % and the battery specific energy from 300 to 1000 Wh/kg in the simulations. The performance and emissions of an ATR72-600 were compared to the electrically assisted versions, and the impacts of hybridization were outlined.Aerospace Engineerin