Performance Cycle Analysis for a Multi-Fuel Hybrid Engine

Abstract

Over the last decades, aviation has become a dominant way of travelling for human beings. However, the global warming and ozone depletion have become the major problems for humankind. Although aviation only counts for a minority of total pollutions, it shouldn’t be ignored any more. Therefore, the ACARE has set an ambitious objective for the year of 2050 to reduce CO2 emission by 75%, NOx emission by 90% and noise emission by 65% compared to these levels in 2000 [1].This reduction is to be achieved by combined improvements in aircraft, propulsion systems and air traffic management systems. To achieve the ACARE goal, a novel multi-fuel hybrid engine concept was proposed for a multi-fuel blended wing body aircraft. A parametric analysis has been carried out in previous work, and the reference point was initially chosen at cruise. This paper continues to analyse the cycle performance of the hybrid engine. Firstly, the impacts of using a mixer was analysed at the reference point; secondly, a comparison was made between the hybrid engine and a conventional engine; furthermore, the hybrid engine performance was analysed at various operating altitudes and Mach number; additionally, the impacts of the inter-stage turbine burner were investigated. Finally, the impacts of fuel ratio on the engine performance was examined for a given thrust at take-off.