Abstract
Currently, hybrid-electric aircraft are under investigation as one possible solution to reduce the emissions of the aviation industry according to Flightpath 2050 of the European Union. To meet the drive train's requirements on low mass while aiming for highest efficiency, superconducting technologies are regarded as a key enabling technology for drive train powers of several tens of megawatts. Within the German nationally funded project TELOS an exemplary mission profile and the physical measures of a 220-passenger aircraft are used to derive the requirements for a cryogenic-cooled serial hybrid-electric propulsion system. To optimize the total system performance, we subsequently evaluated the superconducting and cryogenic-cooled components by using computationally fast, analytical models. This approach allows quantifying the system performance by using component technologies being available today. In particular, the system performance of geared drive to direct drive propulsion units are compared and the influence of the DC bus voltage and the electric frequencies of the AC circuits on the mass and the efficiency of the drive trains are analysed.
Highlights
The number of passengers travelling by aircraft is constantly rising with an annual rate of about four percent
Superconducting machines that fulfill the global requirements of the electric propulsion- and generation- units which are shown in table 1, were modeled
The discussion will be focused on the machines of the electric propulsion unit
Summary
The number of passengers travelling by aircraft is constantly rising with an annual rate of about four percent Due to this development, the effect of the improving fuel efficiency of aircraft and their engines is overwhelmed which leads to increasing absolute emissions of the overall civil aviation sector [1]. 33 (2020) 044014 enormous current carrying capabilities of superconductors, using them in electric machines or cables can reduce the masses and required voltage levels of such components When cooling these components with liquid hydrogen, the evaporated hydrogen can be used further as a fuel for power generation [3, 6] instead of requiring energy densities for batteries that are orders of magnitude higher [8] than the state of the art [7]. That the Soviet aircraft TU-155 successfully passed experimental flights between Moscow and Kiev with hydrogen powered engines in 1988
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