Cusati, Vincenzo
(2020)
Design activities for innovative turboprop aircraft
with minimum economic and environmental impact.
[Tesi di dottorato]
| Tipologia del documento: |
Tesi di dottorato
|
| Lingua: |
English |
| Titolo: |
Design activities for innovative turboprop aircraft
with minimum economic and environmental impact |
| Autori: |
| Autore | Email |
|---|
| Cusati, Vincenzo | vincenzo.cusati@unina.it |
|
| Data: |
13 Marzo 2020 |
| Numero di pagine: |
190 |
| Istituzione: |
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II |
| Dipartimento: |
Ingegneria Industriale |
| Dottorato: |
Ingegneria industriale |
| Ciclo di dottorato: |
32 |
| Coordinatore del Corso di dottorato: |
| nome | email |
|---|
| GRASSI, MICHELE | michele.grassi@unina.it |
|
| Tutor: |
| nome | email |
|---|
| Nicolosi, Fabrizio | [non definito] |
|
| Data: |
13 Marzo 2020 |
| Numero di pagine: |
190 |
| Parole chiave: |
Aerodynamics, Propulsive Effects, Costs |
| Settori scientifico-disciplinari del MIUR: |
Area 09 - Ingegneria industriale e dell'informazione > ING-IND/03 - Meccanica del volo |
[error in script]
[error in script]
| Depositato il: |
02 Apr 2020 09:06 |
| Ultima modifica: |
28 Ott 2021 12:27 |
| URI: |
http://www.fedoa.unina.it/id/eprint/13243 |
Abstract
The research work concerns the design activities for innovative turboprop
aircraft with rear engines installation with minimum economic and
environmental impact. The configuration has been conceived to transport
130 passengers. As well as classical aircraft design aspects such as aerodynamics,
the work is focused also on other multidisciplinary and significant
aspect for the certification such as costs. The interest in turboprop aircraft
stems from two main reasons: i) their reduced pollutant emissions with respect
to jet ii) economic advantages in terms of operating costs and reduced
fuel consumption (for short-medium range mission).
In the next 20 years regional air traffic is expected to triple at an average
yearly rate of 6%, generating a market demand of about 9000 new regional
aircraft (with a market value of about e360 billion, averaging e18 billion
per year). A detailed market analysis has revealed that the 100 to 149
seat aircraft segment will witness a major fleet transformation with the
entry-into-service of new clean-sheet aircraft designs.
The turboprop configuration with rear engines could address both the
new market requirements of a higher passenger capacity and one of the
most relevant European Community challenge concerning the pollutant
emissions reduction by means of laminar wing technologies and the nextgeneration
propulsion system.
However, the turboprop configuration considered in this Ph.D thesis
provides for three-lifting surfaces. It was expected that this kind of configuration
involves several interference effects among the three-lifting surfaces
vii
which have to be investigated to assure the configuration feasibility, in
particular in terms of longitudinal stability.
Thus, the general questions behind the research could be expressed as
follow: is it feasible an innovative turboprop three-lifting surface configuration
with rear engine installation? How competitive would it be on the
aircraft regional market?
Obviously, this two questions are strictly related. Concerning the first
question, the longitudinal stability of a such innovative configuration is one
of the main aspects which must be deepened to ensure the feasibility. It has
been already stated that the rear engine installation can lead to a cleaner
wing with possibilities to achieve laminar flow extension. Furthermore,
a wing without engine nacelles and free of propeller interference effects
will be characterized by more efficient high-lift systems resulting in a potential
increment in maximum lift coefficient positively affecting ground
performances.
However, the rear engine installation leads also to Center of Gravity (CG)
excursion problems which can also affect aircraft performance. In order to
reduce this excursion, the innovative configuration includes a third lifting
surface, a canard, positioned ahead of the wing. Nevertheless, the presence
of the canard entails several wake interference effects among the aircraft
components which have a detrimental effect on longitudinal stability.
A great part of the work is dedicated to the study of all of aerodynamic
interference effects. In particular, both numerical and experimental investigations
have been performed with the aim to detail how the combined
downwash coming from both canard and wing lifting surfaces and their
wakes affect the horizontal tailplane lifting capabilities and consequently
the longitudinal stability. Moreover, since the engines are installed on the
tailplane, the investigations include also the propulsive effects (both direct
and indirect) in order to enhance the reliability of the tailplane aerodynamic
behaviour prediction in a such innovative configuration.
High fidelity RANS calculations were performed by means of commercial
software STAR-CCM+, on the grid computing infrastructure provided
by the University of Naples Federico II, SCoPE, to simulate lots of configurations
in a short amount of time. The experimental tests campaign has been
performed in the main wind tunnel facility of the Department of Industrial
viii
Engineering (DII) that is a subsonic, closed circuit tunnel, with a tempered
rectangular cross section.
As concern the second question, the innovative turboprop is supposed to
be competitive with respect to short-medium haul regional jets, in particular
with respect to the following aspects: increase the passengers number, SFC
and emissions reduction, longer design missions, improve cabin comfort,
reduce environmental noise, improve the aerodynamic efficiency.
All these aspects could contribute to the success of the configuration on
the aviation market. To quantify the possible economic advantageous of
the innovative configuration, the Direct Operating Cost (DOC) was chosen
as metric. A brief review of the most widely used state-of-the-art methods
for aircraft cost estimation has been discussed. Once the costs estimation
methodologies have defined, the Cost Estimating Relationships (CER), able
to establish cost estimates for operating costs, have been implemented in
the software JPAD (Java-based library). The software has been exploited to
performed the evaluation of economic impact of the innovative turboprop
configuration and to compare this configuration with respect to a possible
competitor, a regional jet similar to Airbus A220-300.
The issues faced during different project loops and the solutions adopted
constitute the true heart of the research, adding an important dowel towards
the feasibility of a such innovative turboprop configuration.
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