Mémoire: Avancement

A320neo
• RDS Analysis done for the classical aircraft: validation of the different
modules
•
•  Implementation of the fuel cell technology on this aircraft:
• Changes in the engines: number, size, …
• Fuel: size of tanks, location, mass
• Number of passengers
• Range obtained
 Power requirements
• RDS: values of T/W of each segment of the flight
àValues of thrust required during the whole flight
àAssumption of ηprop (see after):
Pshaft= T . V/ ηprop
 We know the value of the shaft power that we need during the flight

● Take ● Climb ● Climb ● Climb ● Climb ● Cruise

off 1 2 3 4
● Pshaft ● 26595. ● 23253, ● 28812, ● 28535, ● 26014, ● 8757,7
[kW] 54 7 23 72 82 6
● Pelec ● 27141, ● 23728, ● 29400, ● 29118, ● 26545, ● 8936,4
[kW] 37 26 24 08 73 8
● Pfc ● 27695, ● 24212, ● 30000, ● 29712, ● 27087, ● 9118,8
[kW] 27 51 25 33 48 6
 Efficiencies
• η_prop:

1) Classic propeller: Efficiency around 85% until M=0,6

2) Open-rotor: Same efficiency but until M=0,85
3) Study of CFM RISE propellers
4) Study of Counter-Rotating Open Rotor from Safran (2017)
5)
6)
 CFM RISE
• Should be a BPR of 75
• Should operate at M=0,85
• Not the same errors than open rotor from Safran (no counter-rotating
blades, complex gear box)
•
 Based on this, I assume for the moment a propulsive efficiency of
90% but when I will study the implementation of this kind of engine, I
will increase the efficiency to 97% (from Safran document)
Efficiencies
• To pass from Pshaft to Pelec, the efficiency of the electrical motors
has been taken into account : I assumed 96%
• To pass from Pelec to Pfc, the efficiency of the Power Management
And Distribution unit (PMAD) has been taken into account.
àChanges in the PMAD due to the implementation of the fuel cells:
àThe batteries are now fuel cells
àThe generators attached to the engines are now electric motors
àThe APU is included in the fuel stack
 Components of the PMAD
• Static inverter 3-phase: η = 98%
• No need of transformer rectifier
• Autotransformer : η = 97% (from Safran)
• Buses: η = 99% (assumption)
•
• The autotransformers are part of the essential circuit (used in case of
any failure)
 For a normal flight, I will assume η = 98% x 99% = 97%

•
•
 Other power requirements: Aircraft systems
• Based on the electrical routing of the A320 aircraft family and on the
littérature, I assumed that the APU is able to supply all the aircraft
systems:
•
àAPU provides 90kVA of power (AC) at a frequency of 400Hz. This
power source is thus replaced by FCs:
P_DC = P_apu/0,8
0,8 is an assumption because the voltage and the current of the APU are not
always in phase (0,8 is thus a safety factor)

P_DC = 112,5kW
Other power requirements: Fuel stack
• Cooling: Dynamic model  to do
• Recirculation: Dynamic model => 45,07kW for the compressor
• Turbo-normalized compressor  to do
• H2/Air pumps  to do
I still need to study more my dynamic model.
•
Dynamic model used (from Simulink)
 Hydrogen needed
• Maximum instantaneous power needed: 31968kW (P_fc for the
electric motors + P for the aircraft systems + P for recirculation
compressor + 8% of reserve and cooling)
• M_H2 =
•
Without any change in the range (considering also the AC systems*):

● Take ● Clim ● Clim ● Clim ● Clim ● Cruis ● Total

off b1 b2 b3 b4 e
● M_H2● 12,34 ● 27,27 ● 65,33 ● 54,70 ● 115,7 ● 3060, ● 4221,
[kg] 7 9 6 2 55 9 82*
● V_H2 ● 0,294 ● 0,649 ● 1,556 ● 1,302 ● 2,756 ● 72,87 ● 100,5
[m^3] 5 9 2*
Efficiency of the fuel cell: Static model
• Use of a static model on Python: OPEM
• P_max to reach = 31968 kW
àWith OPEM: 201908 fuel cells distributed in stacks gives the correct
maximum instantaneous power
à
 Study of the model
• With this model, we can get the stack efficiency for each operating point
(each value of the power at the different segments of the flight) and thus
calculate the amount of hydrogen for each segment.
àFor each value of the requested power, find the value of the current. For
this value of the current, check the corresponding value of η_fc.
à
RDS also gives the values of the corresponding times for each segment
 The time used for the aircraft system utilization, recirculation compressor
and reserve + cooling system is 539,915min, which corresponds to the time
between the passengers on-boarding to the taxi-out of the aircraft.
 Volume of Hydrogen
• If stored at 700bars: 100,5196m^3 of H2 needed (ρ_H at 700 bar =
42kg/m^3)
• This volume has to be stored on-board + the volume of the fuel cells !
•
• Fuel cells used : HTPEM fuel cells to operate at 140°C and thus
increase their efficiency
 Storage of the fuel cells
• In the wings:
I assumed a supercritical airfoil: NASA SC(2) 0610
We know the t/c ratio of the airfoil, and the average chord is equal to
3,941m (RDS). We can thus calculate the thickness of the wing at each
Y-location.
Estimation of the thickness of a fuel cell:
Anode/cathode + flow field channels + gas diffusion layers + membrane
= 6,925mm thick with an active area of 400cm^2 to fit inside the wings
à280 fuel cells can be placed at each Y-location
à Estimation: 64 fuel stacks of 250 fuel cells in each wing
 Storage of the fuel cells
• In the wing box:
àEstimation of the geometry: 204 fuel stacks of 490 fuel cells of active area
400cm^2
à
• In the cargo compartment 1:
àEstimation of the geometry: 42 stacks of 700 fuel cells of active area 400
cm^2
• In the cargo compartment 2:
àEstimation of the geometry: 42 fuel stacks of 946 fuel cells of active area
400cm^2
This amount of fuel cells leads to an instantaneous max power of
31968,345kW
 Storage of the hydrogen
• Volume of hydrogen to store: V_thrust + V_ACsystems + V_recirculation +
reserve/cooling = 100,5196 m^3 of internal volume
• Storage at 700 bars: we need a composite material to store it. The tank will
consist of a thin layer (5mm) of liner (only for gas permeability, doesn’t
sustain any load) and then carbon fibers in the hoop and helical direction.
àFilament winding theory (netting analysis) to calculate the wall
thicknesses:
• Where p is the limit internal pressure (safety factor of 1,5 applied on
it), R is the tank radius (limited by the size of the fuselage), σ in
t_helical is the design allowable stress of fiber in the helical
direction, σ in t_hoop is the design allowable stress of fiber in the
hoop direction (higher stresses in this direction, this is the reason
why we have not only helical layers, which also contributes in the
hoop direction
àSolidWorks simulation (in progress) to verify this theory.
àThe tank will be placed at the end of the fuselage.
 Sizing of the tank
• Iteration:
1) First consider that the internal volume of the tank is the internal volume
of the fuselage: calculation of the wall thickness
2) Adapt the radius of the tank in order to fit the fuselage (tank + wall)
3) Calculate again the thickness of the wall, reducing the tank radius to fit
inside the fuselage
4) End of the iteration:
t_wall = 51,58mm
outer diameter = 2,65m
length = 19,77m
 Conclusion of the A320neo study
• With this aircraft, we would be able to transport around 78 passengers,
• Indeed, we could reduce the range in order to decrease the tank size but
the number of passengers would be still reduced.
àThis is the reason to study the A321neo: same parameters, only the length
of the fuselage (and thus the thrust requirements) change with respect to
the A320neo.
àRDS Analysis done for the A321neo with an assumption: SFC of the
engines. I have access to the data of the engine of the A321ceo. Airbus
assumes that the new engines have an improvement of 15% in the SFC
with respect to the old generation. This leads to an error in the range of
6%, which is acceptable since I have no access to the real data.
 Implementation of FCs
• I am doing the same study on the A321neo for the fuel cells (thrust
requirements already done).
• I considered the A321neo with the weight variant max (MTOW = 97000kg)
with 2 additional center tanks added to increase the fuel capacity. This
will help to store the fuel cells.

• I still need to consider several problems: cooling system, bleed air system
(air conditioning), reuse the heat generated by the fuel cells to warm the
cabin, maybe reuse the water released by the fuel cells to include it in
the cooling system ? …etc
• I also need to optimize the fuel cell system to try to have the best efficiency
(increasing the number of fuel cells for the same load increases the
efficiency, thus better H2 utilization but more weight  to optimize)
 Change in the methodology
• I will do the sizing in the other way: calculate the volume available in
the aircraft without decreasing the number of passengers and teh
cargo compartments available  calculate the number of FCs and
the volume of the tank that we can install  calculate the range.
Then iterate by increasing the size of the fuel cell system but thus
reduce the number of passengers calculate the range.
Do these iterations until reaching a short/medium range acceptable
aircraft. Do also an economical study to know the number of
passengers required to couteract the direct operating costs of the
aircraft per flight hour,
 Further analysis
• The analysis of the A321neo can go further with a mass analysis: I will
estimate the mass of the system at the different locations.
• This will be helpful to do the RDS analysis with my new aircraft to test
the compatibility of RDS to model FCs aircrafts.