Design of the parametric appearance of the power plant for modifications of the regional passenger aircraft An-158

Abstract

The object of research is the process of remotorization of a regional passenger aircraft to increase its fuel efficiency. Based on the conceptual requirements for the remotorization of the An-158 aircraft with turbojet bypass engines, a parametric appearance of three modifications of this aircraft with turboprop engines for 80, 100, and 120 passenger seats was formed. The study was carried out on the basis of the well-known modular software systems «Integration 2.1» and «Air propeller 2.2» for typical flight profiles of the An-158 aircraft. Improved procedures of weight design and determination of the takeoff characteristics of aircraft with different types of power plant engines have made it possible to identify the most advantageous flight speeds of aircraft modifications with a turboprop engine corresponding to different flight masses. The results of the study of flight performance for optimal and «non-optimal» modifications of the aircraft are reported. The parametric appearance of the propeller was formed, the shape of the propeller blade for the cruising flight mode was determined for modifying the aircraft with a maximum number of passengers – 120 people. It is shown that the propeller for this modification of the aircraft cannot have less than 8 blades since with a smaller number of blades, the maximum chord of the propeller blade increases. The inductive power costs increase significantly due to the small elongation of the blades and, as a result, the flight efficiency of the propeller decreases. It is shown that the total fuel consumption for the entire typical flight of all modifications of the aircraft with turboprop engine at all studied flight speeds is less than the total fuel consumption of the An-158 base aircraft