Assessment of Conceptual Hybrid-Electric Regional Aircraft with Boundary-Layer Ingestion Propeller

Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) is a promising propulsion concept for aviation, aiming to reduce fuel burn. This configuration involves using the propulsor to ingest the boundary layer from the fuselage or wing. Typically, aircraft with BLI propulsors also integrate a hybrid-electric powertrain. This integrated setup has shown potential in fuel...

Potential flow modelling of boundary layer ingesting configurations

Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) is a promising technology for reducing the impact of aviation on the environment. By placing a propulsor on an aircraft such that it ingests the slower moving air within the boundary layer, a decrease in power consumption can be achieved. Evaluating the performance of BLI configurations remains a challenge though....

Aerodynamic Shaping of a Propulsive Fuselage Concept: A Design Space Exploration

Boundary layer ingestion is an airframe-propulsion integration technology capable of enhancing aircraft propulsive efficiency. The Propulsive Fuselage Concept, a tube-and-wing layout with an rear-fuselage-mounted propulsor in the boundary layer ingestion configuration, especially takes advantage this. However, the relation between physical shape...

Empennage Wake Filling using Steady Chord-wise Blowing for Propulsive Fuselage Concepts

It is the need of the hour to focus research and development towards curbing emissions due to the growing aviation industry. Employing boundary layer Ingesting(BLI) propellers for development of propulsive fuselage concept(PFC) aircraft while utilizing hydrogen as an alternative energy source, is the idea behind project APPU(Advanced Propulsion...

Performance of a Single-Aisle Aircraft with Auxiliary Propulsion and Power Unit

The aviation industry has grown at a steady rate of 5% per year over the past decades and is projected to continue this growth over the coming years. In sharp contrast stands the increasing concern with the reduction of the environmental impact of flying in the short term. To this end, a fuselage boundary layer ingesting propulsor powered using...

Computational aeroacoustics of rotor noise in novel aircraft configurations: A lattice-boltzmann method-based study

The accurate and reliable prediction of the aerodynamic noise sources of open rotors and ducted-fans in electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) and non-conventional aircraft configurations is a challenging task from a computational perspective. Indeed, such propulsive systems can often operate in highly distorted and non-homogeneous flows...

Development of a Hydrogen-powered Fuselage-mounted BLI Propulsor Add-on for Passenger Aircraft

The concept of an "Auxiliary Power and Propulsion Unit" (APPU) is introduced, which consists of a Boundarylayer ingesting (BLI) propulsor with an engine mounted at the rear of an passenger aircraft fuselage, replacing the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and contributing around 10% of total cruise thrust, as well as auxiliary power. This APPU unit is...

Application of Power Balance Method to CFD

A formulation based on the evaluation of power conversions within the system allows to overcome the limitations of conventional momentum analyses to study tightly coupled airframe-propulsion configurations such as Boundary Layer Ingestion. The so-called power balance method is applied in a CFD framework to gain insight about the application of...

Proof of concept study for fuselage boundary layer ingesting propulsion

Key results from the EU H2020 project CENTRELINE are presented. The research activities undertaken to demonstrate the proof of concept (technology readiness level-TRL 3) for the so-called propulsive fuselage concept (PFC) for fuselage wake-filling propulsion integration are discussed. The technology application case in the wide-body market...

Numerical Study of Flow over a Rotating Cone under Axial and Non-Axial Inflow

Although significant strides have been made with regards to increasing the fuel economy of commercial passenger aircraft, the reduction of the environmental footprint remains of the utmost importance. The flow development over an aero-engine spinner will affect the velocity distribution over the fan of the engine and this affects the estimation...

Experimental investigation of boundary layer ingestion in integrated propulsion systems

This thesis experimentally assesses the benefit of Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) at the unaccelerated condition (thrust equals drag) of an integrated system in an industrial wind tunnel setting. The boundary layer or wake flow of the fuselage is ingested by the propulsor. Previous research shows that ingesting the boundary layer can lead to...

Numerical analysis of fan noise for the NOVA boundary-layer ingestion configuration

Aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of the turbulent flow developing over a fuselage on fan noise for BLI embedded propulsion systems. Such configurations can suffer from inlet flow distortions and ingestion of turbulence at the fan plane with consequent impact on both broadband and tonal fan noise. The analysis is performed on a...

Optimality considerations for propulsive fuselage power savings

The paper discusses optimality constellations for the design of boundary layer ingesting propulsive fuselage concept aircraft under special consideration of different fuselage fan power train options. Therefore, a rigorous methodical approach for the evaluation of the power saving potentials of propulsive fuselage concept aircraft...

Aero-propulsive performance analysis of fuselage for boundary layer ingestion

Aircraft fuel efficiency, noise, and emissions are some of the most important aspects being addressed in the research of novel aircraft configurations for meeting the future requirements of the aviation industry. One concept which has the potential for improving the aircraft fuel efficiency is called the boundary layer ingestion (BLI)....

Design and Analysis of an Installed Pusher Propeller with Boundary Layer Inflow

Boundary Layer Ingestion is an integrated propulsion concept in which a propulsor operates in boundary layer flow instead of the free streamflow with the goal to reduce the fuel flow for a given operating condition. The objective of this thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the power benefit of an installed pusher propeller at the aft...

Boundary Layer Ingestion: Theoretical and Experimental Research

In this thesis both Wake Ingestion (WI) and Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) configurations have been investigated and analyzed with respect to their application to aircraft design. WI and BLI in the context used here means positioning the engine such that it ingests boundary layer fluid for the purpose of saving shaft-power. This research...

Inlet Distortion Characterization of the Boundary Layer Ingesting D8 Aircraft

This thesis experimentally assesses the inflow towards the propulsors and the pressure distribution at the propulsor fan-face for the boundary layer ingesting D8 aircraft, and examines the dependence of the model, the propulsor and the flight condition on the inlet distortion. Use is made of mini-tuft flow visualization and five hole probe...

Design of Inlet for Boundary Layer Ingestion in a Blended Wing Body Aircraft

Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) is a concept in which the fuselage boundary layer is ingested by the engine to produce benefits like improved fuel efficiency, reduction of ram drag and lower structural weight of the configuration. Blended Wing Body (BWB) concept has been researched on and studied in various forms over the years as an efficient...