Assessment of the performance boundaries of very low specific thrust direct-drive turbofan engines at aircraft level for EIS 2025

Abstract

Within the past decade, concerns over the environmental impact of civil aviation have pushed the research community towards the development of more efficient propulsion technology, which delivers a lower carbon and NOx footprint. The current progress achieved in the various specialised disciplines creates the need to redefine the performance barrier achievable by 2025 state-of-the-art aero-engines. This paper summarises some of the latest advancements within the gas turbine research community on the performance modelling and analysis of very low dspecific thrust direct-drive turbofan engines for EIS 2025. Engine and aircraft performance models were used to predict the extent of fuel burn reduction at aircraft level that could be achieved by reducing the engine specific thrust level , increasing operating pressure and temperature levels and applying technology factors representing a step beyond current state-of-the-art. The models represented modern three-spool direct-drive turbofans powering a typical A350XWB-type aircraft. The outputs of the engine design of experiments (DoE) exercise resulted in three most promising candidates. Targeting EIS in 2025, the final optimum design showed 14.81% block fuel improvement for a representative long (7000nm) range mission, accompanied by 30.9% penalty on engine weight. These results propose that with current technology level, at the lower end of the specific thrust range, there is still available design space for the direct-drive turbofan architecture