Regional Transport Aircraft Design using Turbo Electric Distributed Propulsion (TEDiP) System

As the world moves towards environmental sustainability, the civil aviation enterprise has responded by setting challenging goals for significantly increased energy efficiency and reduced harmful emissions into the atmosphere as codified by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Advisory Council for Aircraft Innovation and Research in Europe (ACARE). The airline industry supports these goals because of their positive impact on operational cost and the environment. Achieving such goals requires introduction of novel technologies and aircraft concepts. Previous studies have shown that electrified aircraft can be effective in meeting these challenges.While there are several mechanisms to incorporate novel technologies for electrified aircraft, two such technologies: turbo-electric propulsion and distributed propulsion, are used in this research. Integration of these two technologies with the airframe leverages the well-known favorable interference between the wing and the tractor propeller wake to provide increased lift during takeoff.In the present research, the advantages and disadvantages of integrating a turbo-electric distributed propulsion (TEDiP) system are assessed for a regional transport aircraft (RTA). With near term motor technology, an improvement in trip fuel burn was observed on the four and six propeller variants of the TEDiP aircraft. The takeoff field length(TOFL) also improved in all three design variants which is a direct result of the working of distributed propulsion leading to better aerodynamic performance at takeoff conditions.The approach and findings for this research are reported in this thesis.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Polepeddi, Vachaspathy

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Lowe, K. Todd
• Raj, Pradeep

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Blaesser, Nathaniel James

• Turbo-electric Propulsion
• Regional Transport Aircraft
• Wing-Propeller Aerodynamics
• Aircraft Design

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:35141

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/111148