Conceptual Design Study of a Hydrogen Powered Ultra Large Cargo Aircraft
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Conceptual Design Study of a Hydrogen Powered Ultra Large Cargo Aircraft R.A.J. Jansen University of Technology Technology of University Delft Delft Conceptual Design Study of a Hydrogen Powered Ultra Large Cargo Aircraft Towards a competitive and sustainable alternative of maritime transport by R.A.J. Jansen to obtain the degree of Master of Science at the Delft University of Technology, to be defended publicly on Tuesday January 10, 2017 at 9:00 AM. Student number: 4036093 Thesis registration: 109#17#MT#FPP Project duration: January 11, 2016 – January 10, 2017 Thesis committee: Dr. ir. G. La Rocca, TU Delft, supervisor Dr. A. Gangoli Rao, TU Delft Dr. ir. H. G. Visser, TU Delft An electronic version of this thesis is available at http://repository.tudelft.nl/. Acknowledgements This report presents the research performed to complete the master track Flight Performance and Propulsion at the Technical University of Delft. I am really grateful to the people who supported me both during the master thesis as well as during the rest of my student life. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Gianfranco La Rocca. He supported and motivated me during the entire graduation project and provided valuable feedback during all the status meeting we had. I would also like to thank the exam committee, Arvind Gangoli Rao and Dries Visser, for their flexibility and time to assess my work. Moreover, I would like to thank Ali Elham for his advice throughout the project as well as during the green light meeting. Next to these people, I owe also thanks to the fellow students in room 2.44 for both their advice, as well as the enjoyable chats during the lunch and coffee breaks. Special thanks to Harm, Frederick, and Raoul who were always available to think about possible solutions when I was stuck. Last but not least, special thanks to my parents, sister and rest of the family for their inexhaustible support during my entire life. R.A.J. Jansen December 23, 2016 iii Summary The market of the intercontinental transportation of containerized goods is dominated by the maritime sec- tor due to its low transportation costs. However, the current cargo ships significantly contribute to the en- vironmental pollution due to the emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, a research has been initiated to investigate the feasibility of a hydrogen powered ultra large cargo aircraft as a competitive and sustainable alternative to maritime transport. To gain at least 6-8% market share, a freight rate of less than 250% of the freight rate of current container ships is the estimated performance target for this aircraft concept. Due to its ability to transport 100 lightweight standardized containers, significant transportation cost savings are expected compared to current air cargo transport. Furthermore, the emission of the greenhouse gases is significantly reduced by making use of hydrogen instead of kerosene as aviation fuel. The objective and scope of this research is to investigate the design and performance of this new aircraft concept by performing a conceptual design study, where the competitiveness of this aircraft concept with respect to maritime transport is evaluated by an operational and economical study performed in parallel to this research. Two unconventional aircraft configurations, the multifuselage configuration and the blended- wing-body configuration, are investigated for this aircraft concept, because of its efficient storage of the huge amount of containers and the large pressurized fuel tanks required to store hydrogen compared to a conven- tional aircraft configuration. To make a quantitative trade-off between the two concepts for this application, a conceptual design frame- work has been developed to support the synthesis of a conceptual design for both aircraft concepts. A mul- tidisciplinary optimization approach has been applied to integrate the mutual interaction between multiple disciplines for the design and analysis of both aircraft concepts already in the conceptual design phase. The conceptual design framework makes use of semi-empirical and quasi-analytical methods, because the sim- ple and fast statistical methods are unreliable due to the significant differences of both aircraft concepts with respect to existing aircraft concepts. Although the level of design accuracy is relatively low, it is possible to compare the two proposed aircraft concepts inside a relatively large design space by making use of this con- ceptual design framework. Designed for the same top level requirements, it was found that both aircraft concepts have a wing span larger than 200 meters. Due to these extreme large aircraft dimensions and excessive payload weight requirement, this aircraft concept is not able to operate on existing airports. Therefore, large investment costs are required to build new airports and hydrogen facilities for the aircraft operations of this new concept. In terms of trans- port efficiency, the blended-wing-body concept requires 8.2% less fuel weight compared to the multifuselage concept. This reduction is mainly caused by a higher aerodynamic efficiency and a lower operational empty weight of the blended-wing-body concept because of the absence of the heavy fuselages compared to the multifuselage concept. Compared to current large cargo aircraft, the multifuselage concept performs slightly better (1.4%) in terms of transport efficiency, whereas the blended-wing-body concept is 8.6% more efficient. However, the transport efficiency of cargo ships is still around 50 times higher with respect to a hydrogen pow- ered ultra large cargo aircraft. On the other hand, the transportation time of this aircraft concept is around 20 times faster than maritime transport for intercontinental transport of containerized goods. Based on these results and a sensitivity study to investigate the influence of TLRs on the aircraft design and performance, a quantitative trade-off has been performed. Designed for the initial top level requirements set at the start of this research, it was found that the BWB concept is preferred over the multifuselage concept because of the smaller aircraft dimensions, the lower aircraft weight, and the higher transport efficiency. On the contrary, the multifuselage concept has the potential to become more transport efficient compared to the BWB concept for a higher cruise speed. Therefore, further research is required to reassess the top level requirements and analyze both aircraft concepts is more detail in order to complete the conceptual design study and select a baseline design to enter the preliminary design phase. v Contents List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Nomenclature xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation of a ultra large cargo aircraft. 1 1.2 Motivation of hydrogen as aviation fuel . 2 1.3 Research scope, objective and approach . 3 1.4 Top level requirements . 3 1.5 Report structure. 4 2 Aircraft Concepts Definition 5 2.1 Identification of aircraft configurations . 5 2.1.1 Multifuselage configuration . 5 2.1.2 All-lifting configuration . 6 2.1.3 Discussion . 8 2.2 Identification of propulsion system . 8 2.2.1 Gas turbine engines . 9 2.2.2 Fuel cell . 9 2.2.3 Discussion . 10 2.3 Definition of ultra large cargo aircraft concepts . 10 2.3.1 Multifuselage concept . 10 2.3.2 Blended-wing-body concept . 12 3 Conceptual Design Methodology 13 3.1 Design approach . 13 3.2 Development of a MDO framework for conceptual design . 15 3.2.1 Design of experiments . 17 3.2.2 Numerical optimization . 17 3.2.3 Implementation . 18 3.3 Multidisciplinary analysis . 18 3.3.1 Class I weight estimation. 19 3.3.2 Wing power loading diagram. 21 3.3.3 Geometric modeller . 21 3.3.4 Analysis of operative empty weight . 26 3.3.5 Center of gravity . 28 3.3.6 Aerodynamic analysis . 30 3.3.7 Maximum lift coefficient . 32 3.3.8 Performance analysis . 33 3.3.9 Constraint analysis. 34 3.4 Set-up of numerical optimization . 35 3.4.1 Formulation of optimization problem . 36 3.4.2 Optimization algorithm . 36 3.4.3 Implementation . 37 4 Aircraft Design and Performance 39 4.1 Multifuselage concept . 39 4.2 Blended-wing-body concept . 45 4.3 Design and performance comparison between aircraft concepts . 52 4.3.1 Aircraft dimensions . 53 vii viii Contents 4.3.2 Aircraft weight . 53 4.3.3 Aerodynamic performance. 54 4.3.4 Stability and controllability . 54 4.3.5 Transport efficiency . 54 4.3.6 Conclusions . 55 4.4 Design and performance comparison to aircraft concept of DSE . 58 5 Sensitivity Analysis 59 5.1 Multifuselage concept . 59 5.2 Blended-wing-body concept . 60 5.3 Conclusions. 61 6 Conceptual Design Trade-Off 65 6.1 Trade-off criteria and weights . 65 6.2 Quantitative trade-off table . 66 6.3 Discussion . 66 7 Conclusions 69 7.1 Potential aircraft concepts . 69 7.2 Conceptual design framework . 69 7.3 Aircraft design and performance . 70 7.4 Sensitivity analysis . 71 7.5 Conceptual design trade-off . 71 8 Recommendations 73 Bibliography 77 A User manual 81 B Database of large cargo aircraft 83 C Verification of wing power loading diagram 85 D Final report of multifuselage concept 87 E Final report of blended-wing-body concept 95 List of Figures 1.1 Main characteristics of lightweight container . .............................. 2 2.1 Distribution along the span of lift, mass and bending moment for a twin-fuselage compared to a conventional aircraft . ........................................... 6 2.2 Illustration of two lifting fuselage configurations. ............................ 6 2.3 Illustration of different aircraft configurations of the all-lifting configuration. ........... 7 2.4 Comparison of lift and weight distribution of a BWB design and a conventional aircraft design . 7 2.5 Examples of contra-rotating propeller system used by current commercial aircraft. ........ 9 2.6 Illustration of the multifuselage and BWB concept considered for this study.