Evaluating the Performance and Acoustic Footprint of Aircraft for Regional and Urban Air Mobility
Matthew Clarke, Juan J. Alonso
Abstract
View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2021-3205.vid The synthesis of semi-empirical and physics-based models to estimate aerodynamic loads, propulsion network performance and radiated noise of short-range commuter aircraft is presented in this paper. These methods can be classified as medium-fidelity, whereby predictions require a fraction of the computing cost of more expensive approaches such as CFD while maintaining a degree of accuracy sufficient to facilitate design optimization. A robust weight build-up method based on certification standards, component geometry and design loads is used to ascertain realistic estimates of takeoff gross weight. These analytical tools are integrated into SUAVE, a system-level simulation test bench for assessing the performance of manned and unmanned aircraft. The sizing of powertrain components is also discussed to highlight best practices in the approach to bring non-conventional vehicle configurations from pen-and-paper to the preliminary design stage. As the first of a series of publications outlining a framework to perform multidisciplinary design optimization, the aircraft studied in this paper cover the major vehicular configurations intended for regional and urban air mobility. These aircraft were simulated through a baseline mission to comparatively assess performance and acoustic footprint measured from ground level. A synopsis of the impact of battery cell cathode chemistry, mission profile and passenger capacity is subsequently held.