Steam injection and recovery in the APPU

Steam injection and recovery in the APPU: Parametric analysis on the impact of steam injection and recovery on the Auxiliary Power and Propulsion Unit embedded turboshaft engine

van Schie, Martin (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)

Gangoli Rao, A. (mentor)
Heidebrecht, A. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Aerospace Engineering

A321 APPU

2024-07-02

Aviation has a significant contribution to climate change, which must be decreased. The A321 APPU could offer a substantial improvement, by introducing a hydrogen-powered Auxiliary Power and Propulsion Unit (APPU). This turboshaft engine is located in the tail cone and powers a boundary layer ingestion propulsor, taking over 10% of the thrust. The Steam Injection and Recovery (SIR) cycle is introduced to improve the efficiency of the APPU. This semi-closed water cycle can reduce fuel consumption and NOx emissions. Both the baseline and SIR APPU are modelled in pyCycle, an open-source gas turbine parametric analysis tool. Water properties and heat exchangers are added so pyCycle can model the SIR cycle. The baseline APPU has a thermal efficiency of 45% and a mass of 502 kg. The SIR cycle can increase the efficiency by 1.54% and decrease the NOx emissions by 33.4%, at the cost of a 15.7% mass increase.

Aircraft
Aerospace engineering
Engine
Turboshaft
Turboprop
steam injection
Gas Turbine
Emissions reduction
NOx reduction
CO2 reduction
Engine design
efficiency-enhancement
APPU
APU
A321

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ea5546b3-611b-44f1-a644-e9104973d4d5

Student theses

master thesis

© 2024 Martin van Schie