CHEETA aircraft sizing, performance, and sensitivity

Waddington, Elias

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117727 Copy

Description

Title

CHEETA aircraft sizing, performance, and sensitivity

Author(s)

Waddington, Elias

Issue Date

2022-12-05

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Merret, Jason M

Department of Study

Aerospace Engineering

Discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• sustainable
• sustainability
• aviation
• aircraft
• design
• aircraft design
• hydrogen
• fuel cell
• hydrogen fuel cell

Abstract

This thesis presents an overview of the Center for High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft (CHEETA) aircraft design process. The goal of the center was to evaluate liquid hydrogen technology on an electric aircraft concept that utilized liquid hydrogen fuel cells to electrify flight with zero greenhouse gas emissions at the vehicle level. Doing so informs the organization what technologies must be developed to accomplish the goal of zero-emission aviation by 2050. To do so, various estimation methods for weight, aerodynamics, fuel cells, propulsors, and performance are documented. These estimation methods are integrated to a combined performance-sizing methodology. This script uses the estimates produced to create a series of carpet plots that demonstrate the impact of fuel cell size, heat exchanger area, and wing aspect ratio and area to the maximum take-off weight and fuel consumption of the CHEETA aircraft. These carpet plots are used to observe the sensitivity of the system as well as make design decisions for solid oxide and proton exchange membrane fuel cells. A ducted heat exchanger concept that utilizes waste heat to produce thrust was also incorporated and its contributions to the aircraft configuration are presented. The impact of fuel cell degradation to the lifetime performance of the aircraft was also studied, and a strategy for mitigating the performance loss is presented. The combination of all these effects is shown on a payload-range diagram, comparing the aircraft performance to a representative contemporary, incumbent, hydrocarbon-fuelled aircraft.

Graduation Semester

2022-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Elias Waddington

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