SIMULATOR-BASED MISSION OPTIMIZATION FOR CONCEPTUAL AIRCRAFT DESIGN WITH TURBOELECTRIC PROPULSION

The electrification of pneumatic or hydraulic system on aircraft has been shown effective in reducing the fuel burn. Recently, electrifying propulsive loads has attracted a lot of atten- tion to further improve fuel economy. This work focuses on tools to facilitate more electric aircraft at conceptual design stage, particularly assuming a turbo-generator architecture. Specifically, we develop a simulation tool, mimicking SUAVE [1], which allows mission and fuel burn analysis. Major differences from SUAVE include more detailed models of compo- nents in the electric propulsive branch and degrees of freedom to adjust the velocity profile along the entire mission. Based on the simulator, this work further proposes to leverage a gradient-free optimization technique, which optimizes the optimal velocity profile along the entire mission to minimize fuel burn. Simulation results on two aircraft designs, a con- ventional Boeing 737-800 and NASA-STARC-ABL, verify the effectiveness of the proposed tools.