The steady growth of global air traffic passenger demand requires the air transport industry to work even harder to improve the associated levels of safety, efficiency, and environmental performances of aircrafts. As such, the transient to more electrified aircraft systems is strongly encouraged throughout the complete aircraft operational behaviour, including on-ground operations. Indeed, on-ground operations are still mostly engine based, the main engines designed for flight phases at high power levels are thus used as well as power source to move the aircraft on ground. This induces major economic and environmental losses: currently, fuel consumption from taxi operations is estimated to cost 6,4billion€ and to reach 18M metric tons of CO2 emission per year. To reduce unnecessary fuel burn and their related emissions, a technological alternative has already been identified: Electric Taxiing System (e-Taxiing). However, some technical bottlenecks, as the one dealing with the solution storage energy capacity, have still to be overcome before enabling those system to be used by all existing and future commercial aircrafts. SUNSET will target this specific technical challenge proposing a high performances energy storage module development connected to the future e-Taxiing system. The SUNSET technology will also address the related challenge of mass reduction by providing a high-density energy recovery capability (30Wh/kg) to perform aircraft electrical decelerations while also minimizing cooling and weight. SUNSET partners, Centum Adeneo and Ampère Laboratory (UCBL) are part of the European recognised air industry value chain and will as such be involved in both development of the SUNSET solution with their Topic Manager support for its integration in the e-Taxiing system. SUNSET project will therefore contribute to bring out an innovative solution enabling a winning differentiator for European aircraft manufacturers.
Die Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) ist ein innovatives Europäisches Programm mit dem Ziel, den Einfluss des Luftverkehrs auf die Umwelt massiv zu senken. Als privat-öffentliche Partnerschaft arbeiten insgesamt 86 industrielle und Forschungspartner an ambitionierten Zielen wie - Verringerung des Treibstoffverbrauchs, - Reduktion der Emissionen, - Ökologisches Design, Produktion und Wartung sowie - Schnellere Überleitung innovativer Technologien in den Markt. 'Clean Sky' ist in sechs Integrated Technology Demonstrators (ITD): Smart Fixed Wing Aircraft (SFWA), Green regional aircraft (GRA), ECO Design ITD (ED), Systems for green operation (SGO), Sustainable and Green Engines (SAGE) und Green Rotorcraft (GRC) unterteilt. Einige technologische Aspekte aus den Arbeiten in Clean Sky finden ihre Parallelen auch im Automobilbau, so z. B. Leichtbau und Structural health monitoring (SHM) aktive Strömungsbeeinflussung Drahtlostechnologie Optimierte Integration innovativer Technologien. CleanSky soll den Einfluss des Luftverkehrs auf die Umwelt radikal verbessern und gleichzeitig die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Europäischen Luftfahrtindustrie stärken und sichern. Die ITDs demonstrieren und validieren die technologischen Durchbrüche, die notwendig sind, um die vom ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) als die Europäische Technologieplattform für Aeronautics & Air Transport gesteckten Umweltziele zu erreichen. Zusammen mit Agusta Westland, Airbus, Alenia Aeronautica, Dassault Aviation, EADS-CASA, Eurocopter, Liebherr-Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, Saab AB, Safran und Thales ist die Fraunhofer Gesellschaft einer der Plattform-Leiter und Mitglied im 'Clean Sky' JTI Governing Board.
The goal of ERICKA is to directly contribute to reductions in aircraft engine fuel consumption with a targeted contribution of 1Prozent reduction in SFC relative to engines currently in service. The fuel efficiency of a jet engine used for aircraft propulsion is dependent on the performance of many key engine components. One of the most important is the turbine whose efficiency has a large influence on the engine fuel consumption and hence its CO2 emissions. The turbine must operate with high efficiency in the most hostile environment in the engine. The design of turbine cooling systems remains one of the most challenging processes in engine development. Modern high-pressure turbine cooling systems invariably combine internal convection cooling with external film cooling in complex flow systems whose individual features interact in complex ways. The heat transfer and cooling processes active are at the limit of current understanding and engine designers rely heavily on empirical tools and engineering judgement to produce new designs. ERICKA will provide a means of improving turbine blade cooling technology that will reduce turbine blade cooling mass-flow relative to that required using existing technology. A reduction in cooling mass-flow leads directly to improved component and engine efficiency. The improved technology for turbine cooling developed by ERICKA will also enable low NOx combustion chambers to be included in future engines. ERICKA will undertake research to furnish better understanding of the complex flows used to internally cool rotating turbine blades. This will be achieved by: 1) Acquisition of high quality experimental data using static and rotating test facilities 2) Development of cooling design capability by enhancement of computer codes that will exploit these experimental data ERICKA groups 18 partners representing the European aero engine industry, five SMEs and a set of leading academic institutions. Prime Contractor: Rolls-Royce PLC; London; United Kingdom.
The AERONOX project investigated the emissions of nitrogen (NOx) from aircraft engines and global air traffic at cruising altitudes, the resultant increase in Nox concentrations, and the effects on the composition of the atmosphere, in particular with respect to ozone formation in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The project was structured into three subprojects: Engine exhaust emissions, physics and chemistry in the aircraft wake, and global atmospheric model simulations. A complementary program of work by aviation experts has provided detailed information on air traffic data which was combined with data on aircraft performance and emissions to produce a global emissions inventory. The work resulted in improved predictive equations to determine Nox emission measurements on two engines in cruise conditions. This information was combined with a traffic database to provide a new global Nox emissions inventory. It was found that only minor chemical changes occur during the vortex regime of the emission plume; however this result does not exclude the possibility of further changes in the dispersion phase. A variety of global models was set up to investigate the changes in NOx concentrations and photochemistry. Although aviation contributes only a small proportion (about 3 per cent) of the total global NOx from the anthropogenic sorces, the models show that aviation contributes a large fraction to the concentrations of NOx in the upper troposphere, in particular north of 30 N.