Sensitivity study of engine design parameters to climate impact

Sensitivity study of engine design parameters to climate impact

Saluja, Harjot Singh (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)

Gangoli Rao, A. (mentor)
Yin, F. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Aerospace Engineering

2021-08-31

In the last few years, there has been a growing awareness regarding the climate impact of aviation in the general public. With global warming effects becoming more severe, it is important that aviation drastically reduce its emission footprint to keep the impact on the climate lower. There have been ongoing efforts by various organizations such as ICAO and ACARE which have led to the formulation of ambitious targets for reducing aviation emissions in the future. In the past, the main goal of improving aero-engine performance has generally been to increase the operating pressure and temperature, thereby improving the cycle efficiency leading to lower fuel consumption, and consequently, lower CO2 emissions. However, this increase also leads to more NOx emissions from the engine, as NOx emissions are sensitive to engine pressure and temperature variations. The climate impact of aviation is mainly driven by long-term impacts from the CO2 emissions and short-term impacts from the non-CO2 emissions. This thesis aims to analyze the sensitivity of the turbofan engine design parameters towards the impact on the climate in terms of near-surface temperature change due to the various emission species. A detailed methodology was developed for the thesis, encompassing different aspects such as aircraft performance, emission prediction, engine modeling, emission inventories, and climate analysis. The aircraft performance model, the emission prediction model, and the emission inventory model were developed specifically for the purpose of this thesis. The engine modeling was done in the Gas Turbine Simulation Program (GSP), which is a modeling tool used for the development and simulation of gas turbine systems. The climate analysis was carried out in AirClim, which is a surrogate model obtained from the results of Climate-Chemistry models, meant for comparing aviation technological options from a climate impact point of view. The results from the thesis are intended to develop a better understanding of the relationships in the field of aviation emissions, especially concerning the tradeoffs between the CO2 and the non-CO2 effects, since the relationship between design parameters, emissions, and climate impact is not straightforward.

Turbofan engine design
Aviation climate impact
Combustion technology
Climate modelling

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:32f7c2a2-607d-408d-beb3-70d16366712d

2023-08-31

Student theses

master thesis

© 2021 Harjot Singh Saluja