Conceptual Exploration of Aircraft Configurations for the SUSAN Electrofan
Timothy Chau, Gaetan K. Kenway, Cetin C. Kiris
Abstract
View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-2181.vid This paper presents an aircraft configuration trade space exploration for NASA’s SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan, which is a 180 passenger regional class transport aircraft that utilizes electrified aircraft propulsion and advanced propulsion airframe integration technologies to enable reduced fuel consumption and emissions. At its core is a hydrocarbon fuel-consuming aft fuselage propulsor that produces 35% of the total thrust while generating power to drive wing-mounted electric propulsors, which produce the remaining 65% thrust. This power is extracted from the aft fuselage propulsor via a set of generators and is managed with the help of a rechargeable battery, classifying the propulsion system as hybrid electric. Investigated in this work are different aft fuselage propulsor concepts, several wing propulsor configurations, and different types of stability and control strategies that can be accommodated by this hybrid electric system architecture, with an emphasis on aircraft performance. Results obtained using a low-order multidisciplinary design and analysis framework demonstrate that even with a subset of the advanced technologies that are being considered for the SUSAN Electrofan, significant improvements to fuel efficiency can be achieved.