Aircraft electric propulsion systems: Alternative energy storage and electric motors.

Rodrigo Muchagato Figueiredo

Key information

Authors:

Rodrigo Muchagato Figueiredo (Rodrigo Muchagato Figueiredo)

Supervisors:

João Filipe Pereira Fernandes (João Filipe Pereira Fernandes)

Published in

11/25/2022

Abstract

Current aircraft are responsible for a high share of the total CO2 emissions and noise pollution. With the continuous growth of the aeronautical sector, it is mandatory to take some actions to mitigate climate change. Therefore, the European Commission has set goals for reducing gas emissions in the aeronautical sector to be achieved by 2050. NASA also proposed a strategic implementation plan but to be achieved by 2035. For this, improvements and innovations on the current aircraft are urgent. One possible way to achieve these objectives is the electrification of the aircraft sector. With the work developed in this thesis, it is intended to elaborate a comparative study between several energy storage systems and electric motors to be installed on existing aircraft. These models are to be complemented with different aircraft aerodynamic models to allow the estimation of the required energy and power in a flight simulation. The scenarios of take-off and cruising are addressed in this work for three different aircraft models. Results show that electrification for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and small aircraft is today possible, but with a limited range. For commercial aircraft, the superconducting motors combined with fuel cells show some potential, however, these technologies are still under development.