Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study investigates the optimisation of design variables for the unconventional Flying-V-900 aircraft to minimise its climate impact, taking into account operational costs. The study examines the compromises between operational costs and climate factors. A multidisciplinary analysis and optimisation framework is developed in order to minimise the Flying-V-900’s impact on global warming, cash operating costs, and fuel efficiency. This study investigates the influence of geometry, turbofan engine, and mission design variables on these objectives. The findings indicated that fuel- and cost-optimised designs demonstrated nearly identical performance, whereas a climate-optimised design exhibited contradictory performance. These results indicate that adopting a climate-optimised Flying-V-900 could potentially reduce the impact of global warming compared to a conventional aircraft, as measured by the average temperature response over a 100-year period, by approximately 60%. However, it is important to note that this transition would come with a significant increase in cash operating costs, specifically by 32%. This analysis considers the impacts of both CO2 and non-CO2 factors, including contrail formation and NO𝑥 emissions. It demonstrates that the climate-optimised Flying-V aircraft give priority to flying at a low altitude of 6km and a velocity of Mach 0.60 in order to minimise contrail formation and NO𝑥 emissions. However, achieving this requires a 20% increase in fleet size to maintain productivity.
Author: de Voogt, Rowan (author)
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6981862270