Advancements in Turbomachinery Development for Electric Propulsion

May 24th, 2018 | Start Time 10:00 – 11:00 AM EDT

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Electric propulsion is rapidly gaining momentum in the modern aerospace industry and with its wide range of applications, from small unmanned drones to large scale civil aircrafts, it's no wonder why. These propulsion systems can be as simple as a battery pack powering cooling fan for a remote controlled drone or as complicated as a multi-phase system with turbo generators and coolant exhausts for the largest commercial jets.

The general concept of electric propulsion is to switch the driving power of the propulsive fans from the conventional mechanical drive to the electric drive which results in the advantage of higher efficiency of power usage. In turboelectric and hybrid propulsion systems, the propulsive fans are mechanically decoupled from the turbo-generators, which eliminates the mechanical loss on shaft power from these turbomachines. Being components of the electric propulsion system, their performance is closely related to propulsion requirements (thrust, propulsive efficiency etc.). With that in mind and given the flight conditions at high altitude, the corresponding turbomachinery design and optimization tasks should also take such mission specific off-design conditions into consideration. All these factors lead to some very unique design requirements  and optimization constraints for turbomachines in electric propulsion systems.

SoftInWay supports number of clients in aerospace industry. Many of these clients (including ASIRI, Reaction Engines, Zunum Aero and others) utilize our revolutionary platform AxSTREAM® for their design needs. By working closely with our clients, we were able to implement specific features related to electric propulsion into our software platform which will help them overcome their challenges, meet deadlines faster and reach higher performances.

This one-hour webinar begins with brief introduction to electric propulsion and then walks attendees through the design and optimization process of the fans in an electric propulsion system under practical considerations for aerospace application.

The webinar session will include:

• An introduction to electric propulsion
• Theoretical background and terminology such as bypass ratio, thrust, propulsive efficiency, and so on
• Different electric propulsion architectures
• Design requirements and constraints associated with fans for electric propulsion application
• Case studies in AxSTREAM®:
  • Design of fans with given requirements
  • Optimization of the designed fan under given constraints
  • Off-design assessments of the optimized fan

Who should attend:

• Aerospace, Mechanical, and Development Engineers working on electrical propulsion and turbomachinery design, modifications, or upgrades.
• Engineers, Scientists, and Managers beginning or advancing in design and analysis of turbomachines.
• Program Managers who want to bring new design capabilities in-house.
• Engineering students looking to expand their knowledge and/or work in electric propulsion.

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