The need for sustainable and energy efficient aviation, pushes the aviation industries toward the design of the next generation of transport aircraft, with dramatic reduction in energy consumption, emissions and noise. Based on the Flightpath 2050 the airplanes flying in 2050 should have 75% CO2 reduction per passenger-kilometer. To achieve this goal, new technologies as well as novel aircraft concepts need to be developed. Electric or hybrid electric aircraft, active flow control technologies, active load alleviation technologies, bionic airframes and novel aircraft configurations such as blended wing body are examples of the solutions suggested to achieve the mentioned goals for the design of future aircraft. This project is a collaboration with Leibniz University of Hannover to investigate the potentials of Hydrogen driven propulsions to realize emission-free aviation. To achieve this goal, a hydrogen powered mid-range passenger aircraft should be designed and the impact of the novel technologies on its performance need to be evaluated. The design includes both conceptual design and multidisciplinary design optimization. The project is funded by German Research Foundation (DFG) via cluster of excellence Sustainable and Energy Efficient Aviation.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Ali Elham
Research Scientists: M. Sc. Anjali Balani, M. Sc. Stanislav Karpuk
In this European project funded by Clean Sky 2 joint undertaking, together with four other European partners we are trying to investigate the influence of novel technology and design methodologies to design novel aircraft with ultra-high aspect ratio wing. The project partners are TU Braunschweig Chair of Aircraft Design (project coordinator) and Institute of Fluid Mechanics, University of Strathclyde, Imperial College London, IRT Saint Exupery, and German-Dutch Wind tunnels (DNW). For more information about the RHEA project please visit https://www.rhea-cleansky2.org/
Principal Investigator: Prof. Ali Elham
Research scientists: M. Sc. Yiyuan Ma, Dr. Morteza Abouhamzeh
CHYLA - Credible HYbrid eLectric Aircraft aims to develop a landscape of opportunities and limitations of key radical hybridelectric technologies (battery electric, fuel cell, but also considering non-drop in fuel technologies such as Hydrogen-H2, Liquified Natural Gas) and the "switching points" associated to scaling such technologies between different aircraft classes. These classes are: General Aviation, commuter aircraft, regional aircraft, short-medium range and large passenger aircraft, where the focus in on up-scaling the key-technologies. This landscape of design solutions is supported through a "credibility assessment" of assumptions underlying the application of these radical technologies, in different technology scenarios. Additionally, the impact of radical solutions will be assessed in terms of the viability of operations, economics and safety (certification). To achieve this, the project will use an approach of integrating novel airframe technologies with a hybrid electric energy network in order to apply credibility-based multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO). In order to provide feasible starting points for this landscape and the MDO, an integrated aircraft design approach will be used with physicsbased design methods for the subsystem technologies. The CHYLA project is funded by the Clean Sky2 program of EU and is a joint work of TU Braunschweig and TU Delft (NL).
Principal Investigator: Prof. Ali Elham
Research Scientists: Nicolas Wahler
Institut für Flugzeugbau und Leichtbau
Hermann-Blenk-Straße 35
D-38108 Braunschweig
E-Mail: ifl@tu-braunschweig.de
Telefon: +49 531 391 9903