Browsing by Author "Sun, Yicheng"

Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
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    Airliner conceptual designs for the application of alternative fuels
    (AIAA, 2023-06-08) Chan, Joseph; Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This paper investigates the application of alternative fuels in conventional tube-and-wing aircraft configuration. Potential alternative fuel choices include biofuel, liquid hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, ammonia and methanol. A comprehensive mission range starting from 2000 nautical miles to 8500 nautical miles is explored, designed and analysed using GENUS, an in-house built multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization platform. It is expected to see a progressive change for each fuel type and capacity combination over different mission ranges. The gradient of these trends should be different which potentially demonstrates the additional benefits of using alternative fuels. The aim of this study is 1) to determine how different fuel properties will affect the designs and performance of aircraft, 2) to quantify the reduction of GHG emission by utilising alternative fuel. The results show cryogenic fuel, which required fuselage fuel tanks and external fuel tanks, will noticeably increase energy consumption due to drag and weight penalties. Meanwhile, the use of hydrogen and biofuel can significantly reduce life cycle GHG emissions if only the fuel is produced in sustainable pathways.
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    Blended wing body design and analysis
    (Cranfield University, 2024-05-23 12:45) Chan, Joseph; Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    Data collected from different simulations and analyses calculated using GENUS
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    Case studies for alternative fuels in different aircraft configurations
    (Cranfield University, 2024-05-24 13:09) Chan, Joseph; Sun, Yicheng; Howard,Peter
    Results of three case studies for different aircraft configurations, tube-and-wing, high aspect ratio wing and blended wing body, using different alternative fuels, kerosene based jet fuel, biofuel, ammonia, liquefied natural gas and liquid hydrogen.
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    Conceptual design methodologies appropriate to supersonic business jets
    (2018-11) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard; Fielding, John
    This project aims to study the status of the issues related to Supersonic Business Jet (SSBJ) conceptual design, to develop design methodologies appropriate to SSBJs, and to explore the design space of low-boom low-drag supersonic transport concepts. The design model appropriate to SSBJs is developed in the Cranfield multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization environment – GENUS. The mass breakdown, engine model, aerodynamic analysis, stability and control, and sonic boom prediction methods are developed in the GENUS framework. Optimizers help to explore the design space based on the model. Through the research, the current supersonic transport concepts are analysed and the supersonic natural laminar flow wing concept is found to leave little space for sonic boom mitigation. The most significant finding is the low-boom solution through the geometry shaping to the volume and lift effects. The low-drag requirement is not necessarily contradicted by the low-boom requirement. The low-boom optimization achieves a sonic boom reduction from 2.6 psf to 0.6 psf and the L/D increase from 8.96 to 10.67. The low-drag optimization achieves a L/D increase from 8.96 to 10.81 and sonic boom reduction from 2.6 psf to 1.0 psf. A low-boom low-drag SSBJ and a low-boom low-drag supersonic airliner concepts are designed in a multidisciplinary view. Pdf available on request and Howard Smith's permission.
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    Conceptual design of low-boom low-drag supersonic transports
    (AIAA, 2020-06-08) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard; Chen, Haixin
    This paper introduces a supersonic aircraft design model developed in a multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDAO) environment. Low- to medium- fidelity methods are applied to the conceptual design model. A family of different classes supersonic aircraft are designed with similar general layout, including a single seat supersonic demonstrator, a 10-passenger supersonic business jet and a 50-seat supersonic airliner. These concepts prove the feasibility of low-boom low-drag supersonic transport designs in a multidisciplinary perspective. There are some challenges to balance the volume with packaging and control requirements. The low-boom design for configuration with nacelles are also very challenging.
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    Conceptual design of sonic boom stealth supersonic transports
    (Springer, 2022-01-13) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This paper introduces a supersonic transport aircraft design model developed in the GENUS aircraft conceptual design environment. A conceptual design model appropriate to supersonic transports with low-to-medium-fidelity methods are developed in GENUS. With this model, the authors reveal the relationship between the sonic boom signature and the lift and volume distributions and the possibility to optimise the lift distribution and volume distribution together so that they can cancel each other at some region. A new inspiring design concept—sonic boom stealth is proposed by the authors. The sonic boom stealth concept is expected to inspire the supersonic aircraft designers to design low-boom concepts through aircraft shaping and to achieve low ground impacts. A family of different classes of supersonic aircraft, including a single-seat supersonic demonstrator (0.47 psf), a 10-passenger supersonic business jet (0.90 psf) and a 50-seat supersonic airliner (1.02 psf), are designed to demonstrate the sonic boom stealth design principles. Although, there are challenges to balance the volume with packaging and control requirements, these concepts prove the feasibility of low-boom low-drag design for supersonic transports from a multidisciplinary perspective.
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    Design and operational assessment of a low-boom low-drag supersonic business jet
    (Sage, 2021-04-09) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    There has been a worldwide interest to develop a supersonic business jet (SSBJ) for a minimum range of 4,000 nm with low sonic boom intensity and high fuel efficiency. An SSBJ design model is developed in the GENUS aircraft conceptual design environment. With the design model, a low-boom low-drag SSBJ concept is designed and optimized. This paper studies the design concept for its operational performances. The sustained supersonic cruise flight is studied to find out the fuel-efficient Mach number and altitude combinations. The combined supersonic and subsonic cruise flight scenarios are studied to evaluate the feasibility of boom-free flight routes. The one-stop supersonic cruise flight scenario is studied to compare the fuel consumption and time advantage over subsonic airliners. The off-design sonic boom intensity is studied to explore the operational space assuming there would be a sonic boom intensity limit in the future. Through the studies, it is revealed that there is a corresponding most fuel-efficient operating altitude for a specific cruise Mach number. To operate the aircraft near the cut-off Mach number leads to both increases in the fuel consumption (6.3% - 8.1%) and the mission time (11.7% - 13.1%). The business-class supersonic transport (231 g/PAX/km) consumes nearly three times fuel as the economic-class supersonic transport (77 g/PAX/km), which is still far more than the economic-class subsonic transport (20 g/PAX/km). Off-design sonic boom intensity studies reveal different trends against the common understanding: the sonic boom intensity does not necessarily decrease as the altitude increases; the sonic boom intensity does not necessarily decrease as the Mach number decreases.
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    Design case of the E-19 AEOLUS supersonic business jet
    (AIAA, 2020-06-08) Smith, Howard; Sun, Yicheng
    This paper introduces the E-19 AEOLUS supersonic business jet designed by the authors (conceptual design) and a team of Staff and a team of graduate students (preliminary and detail design) from the Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc. The design is presented at the 50th anniversary of the first flight of Concorde and with growing interest from many aircraft design companies. An attractive design would still need the usual attributes of safety, security, comfort, reliability, performance and operational flexibility. This paper presents a design that attempts to address these issues. The details of cabin, structures, landing gear, systems, powerplants, etc. are designed. Low-boom low-drag technologies are applied to the design. The synthetic vision display and double drooping nose are introduced to increase the pilot’s field of view. The resulting concept is challenging but could result in an aircraft well suited to meet a new market opportunity
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    The effects of the degree of hybridisation on the design of hybrid-electric aircraft considering the balance between energy efficiency and mass penalty
    (MDPI, 2023-01-23) Kang, Le; Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard; Mao, Junkui
    The growing interest in the application of the hybrid-electric concept demands a rigorous method applied to balancing the energy efficiency improvement with the mass penalty. In hybrid-electric aircraft (HEA) design, it is necessary to avoid excessive usage of energy, which is caused by deliberate hybridising in pursuit of high electrical energy conversion efficiency. This paper presents a design method to achieve multi-objective designs conducted within a framework of multi-disciplinary design exploration appropriate for HEA, meeting the requirement of minimising the maximum take-off mass (MTOM) and fuel saving. A theoretical analysis proposes the existence of the optimum design area of HEA. This is followed by a series of demand-focused numerical design experiments that have verified the existence and position of the optimum design area by taking the mission of a short-range narrow-body airliner as the design target, considering the predicted technology timeline until 2050. Compared to a fuel-powered twin-turbofan aircraft, 65.56% fuel-saving, 16.4% reduction in flight operation cost, 44.58% reduction in block CO2emission, and 75% improvement in the cost-specific air range (COSAR) are achieved via hybridisation using the proposed design optimisation method.
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    High aspect ratio wing design and analysis
    (Cranfield University, 2024-03-25 09:19) Chan, Joseph; Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    Design and analysis data generated using GENUS. This include energy consumption and emissions of HAR configuration using different alternative fuels including kerosene based jet fuel, biofuel, ammonia, liquefied natural gas and liquid hydrogen.
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    Low-boom low-drag optimization in a multidisciplinary design analysis optimization environment
    (Elsevier, 2019-09-20) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This paper introduces a multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization environment called GENUS. The GENUS aircraft design environment’s key features are that it is modular, expandable, flexible, independent, and sustainable. This paper discusses the application of this environment to the design of supersonic business jets (SSBJs). SSBJs are regarded as the pioneers of the next generation of supersonic airliners. Methodologies appropriate to SSBJs are developed in the GENUS environment. The Mach plane cross-sectional area is calculated based on the parametric geometry model. PANAIR is integrated to perform automated aerodynamic analysis. The drag coefficient is corrected by the Harris wave drag calculation and form factor method. The sonic boom intensity is predicted by the wave form parameter method, which is validated by PCBoom. The Cranfield E-5 SSBJ is chosen as a baseline configuration. Low-boom and low-drag optimization are carried out based on this configuration. Through the optimization, the sonic boom intensity is mitigated by 71.36% and the drag decreases by 20.65%.
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    Low-boom low-drag solutions through the evaluation of different supersonic business jet concepts
    (Cambridge University Press, 2019-10-21) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This paper evaluates six supersonic business jet (SSBJ) concepts in a multidisciplinary design analysis optimization (MDAO) environment in terms of their aerodynamics and sonic boom intensities. The aerodynamic analysis and sonic boom prediction are investigated by a number of conceptual-level numerical approaches. The panel method PANAIR is integrated to perform automated aerodynamic analysis. The drag coefficient is corrected by the Harris wave drag formula and form factor method. For sonic boom prediction, the near-field pressure is predicted through the Whitham F-function method. The F-function is decomposed to the F-function due to volume and the F-function due to lift to investigate the separate effect on sonic boom. The propagation method for the near-field signature in a stratified windy atmosphere is the waveform parameter method. In this research, using the methods described and publically available data on the concepts, the supersonic drag elements and sonic boom signature due to volume distribution and lift distribution are analysed. Based on the analysis, low-boom and low-drag design principles are identified.
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    MDAO method and optimum designs of hybrid-electric civil airliners
    (American Society of Civil Engineers, 2022-03-17) Kang, Le; Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    Hybrid-electric civil airliners (HECAs) are considered the forerunner of the solution of relieving aviation emissions. This paper presents a multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDAO) framework named GENUS, which has been extended to design HECAs. GENUS is a modular, expandable, and flexible design environment with 10 integrated modules for HECA design. Key extensions included hybrid-electric propulsion architectures (HEPAs), the corresponding powertrains, and power management strategies (PMS). In addition, a cost module and an aviation emission tracking function were developed and integrated into GENUS. GENUS was validated for investigating the design of HECAs by evaluating existing HECA concepts. Furthermore, three conventional turbofans were hybridized within GENUS to analyze the sensitivity of the performance of engines to the degree of hybridization (DoH) of power. The effects of hybridized engines on aircraft design were evaluated based on Boeing 737, demonstrating that at least 27.18% fuel saving, 9.97% energy saving, 12.40% cost saving, and 43.56% aviation emissions migration can be achieved. Finally, the potential directions of applying GENUS to explore the design space of HECA was discussed, which is useful to maximize the benefits of HECA.
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    Review and prospect of supersonic business jet design
    (Elsevier, 2016-12-30) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This paper reviews the environmental issues and challenges appropriate to the design of supersonic business jets (SSBJs). There has been a renewed, worldwide interest in developing an environmentally friendly, economically viable and technologically feasible supersonic transport aircraft. A historical overview indicates that the SSBJ will be the pioneer for the next generation of supersonic airliners. As a high-end product itself, the SSBJ will likely take a market share in the future. The mission profile appropriate to this vehicle is explored considering the rigorous environmental constraints. Mitigation of the sonic boom and improvements aerodynamic efficiency in flight are the most challenging features of civil supersonic transport. Technical issues and challenges associated with this type of aircraft are identified, and methodologies for the SSBJ design are discussed. Due to the tightly coupled issues, a multidisciplinary design, analysis and optimization environment is regarded as the essential approach to the creation of a low-boom low-drag supersonic aircraft. Industrial and academic organizations have an interest in this type of vehicle are presented. Their investments in SSBJ design will hopefully get civil supersonic transport back soon.
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    Sonic boom and drag evaluation of supersonic jet concepts
    (AIAA, 2018-06-29) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This paper evaluates three different class supersonic airliners (Concorde, Cranfield E-5, and NASA QueSST X-plane) in a multidisciplinary design analysis optimization (MDAO) environment in terms of their sonic boom intensities and aerodynamic performance. The aerodynamic analysis and sonic boom prediction methods are key to this research. The panel method PANAIR is integrated to perform automated aerodynamic analysis. The drag coefficient is corrected by the Harris wave drag formula and form factor method. For sonic boom prediction, the near-field pressure is predicted through the Whitham F-function method. The F-function is decomposed to the F-function due to volume and the F-function due to lift to see their individual effect on sonic boom. The near-field signature propagates in a stratified windy atmosphere using the waveform parameter method. The aerodynamic results are compared with experimental data and the sonic boom prediction results are validated by the NASA PCBoom program. Through the evaluation, we find a direct link between the wave drag and the first derivative of the volume distribution. The sonic boom intensity is influenced by the lift distribution and the volume change rate. The study helps to study the feasibility of low-boom and low-drag supersonic airliners.
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    Supersonic business jet conceptual design in a multidisciplinary design analysis optimization environment
    (AIAA, 2018-01-13) Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This paper introduces a multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDAO) environment called GENUS, which has been developing in Cranfield University’s Aircraft Design Group. The GENUS aircraft design environment has the feature of modular, expandable, flexible, independent, sustainable, and performable. This paper discusses the application of this environment to supersonic business jets (SSBJs), which are regarded as the pioneer of the next generation of supersonic airliners. Methodologies appropriate to SSBJ are developed in the GENUS environment. Mach plane cross-sectional area is calculated based on the parametric geometry model. PANAIR is modified to do automated aerodynamic analysis. Drag coefficient is corrected by Harris wave drag calculation and form factor method. NASA EngineSim is integrated for engine modeling. Carlson simplified sonic boom prediction method has been used for sonic boom signature prediction. Results of the Cranfield E5 SSBJ are presented. Low-boom and low-drag SSBJ designs can be explored based on the framework.
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    Tube and wing aircraft design analysis: data
    (Cranfield University, 2024-01-17 14:47) Chan, Joseph; Sun, Yicheng; Smith, Howard
    This dataset is generated using GENUS for the conference paper "Airliner conceptual designs for the application of alternative fuels" and an upcoming journal paper