Updates and Modeling Enhancements to the Assessment of NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation Technologies and Vehicle Concepts

摘要

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project is conducting research at an integrated system level on promising concepts and technologies expected to mature in the N+2 time frame. It is essential for ERA to perform a systems level analysis of these concepts and technologies in order to estimate and track performance towards ERA's goal of simultaneously achieving improvement in metrics for fuel burn reduction, noise margin, and LTO NOx emissions reduction. Previous vehicle modeling and technology assessment work conducted for the ERA project illustrated system level comparison of tube and wing versus hybrid wing body airframe configurations, as well as between ultra high bypass ratio direct drive and geared turbofan engines. Guidance drawn from these results has led to an updated list of ERA technologies of interest. Additionally, development of improved modeling capabilities and a better understanding of key technology impacts have been accordingly incorporated into an updated technology assessment. This assessment evaluates changes to the technology portfolio, incorporates updated technology assumptions, augmented vehicle and technology models, and includes for the first time LTO NOx estimates for advanced combustors. These new set of results allow for an understanding of the interdependencies between each of the ERA metrics and provide an update on ERA's capability of achieving its goals.