Performance assessment of a solid oxide fuel cell turbine-less jet hybrid engine integrated with a fan and afterburners

Abstract

Reducing carbon emissions in the field of aviation is important with the rising prosperity of air transport. Electric aircraft play an essential role in the process. Hybrid engines, composed of a solid oxide fuel cell, a fan, a compressor, and an afterburner are proposed. Fuel cells provide energy to the compressor and the fan. Internal duct air and external duct air are mixed at the inlet of the nozzle. Propulsion power is output by the nozzle. In order to study the effects of operating parameters on the performance of the hybrid engine, thermodynamic performance models are built. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The specific thrust and specific impulse of the engine are dramatically increased with increasing bypass ratios. Meanwhile, fuel cell power rises slowly, which indicates that the engine with fans has more advantages than the one without fans in the respect of thrust-weight ratios. (2) Fuel cell power first increases then decreases with increasing fan pressure ratio under the conditions of constant overall pressure ratios. (3) Increasing afterburner temperature is the most effective way to improve the thrust of the engine. When the temperature is 2217 K, the specific thrust is up to 3085 N/(kg⋅s−1). Meanwhile, the specific impulse and thermal efficiency are 2693 s and 60.5%, respectively.