With the increasing environmental awareness of modern aviation, aircraft technology development is working towards challenging goals that require new, revolutionary aircraft. A large part of this development is focused on reducing the use of hydrocarbon fuels in the aviation industry. This may be achieved by making use of novel fuel sources, such as liquid hydrogen. This research presents a case study of the use of liquid hydrogen based on an aircraft based on NASA's blended wing body N3-X. A liquid hydrogen tank sizing model was developed and the influence of tank dimensions on tank weight was assessed. Optimum tank dimensions were found to exist for a fixed fuel capacity that resulted in a minimum tank weight. A number of tank configurations were compared for the aircraft case study. The maximum payload range was compared for each configuration. In addition, the energy efficiency in terms of the energy to revenue work ratio was compared. A flexible configuration with removable tanks was found to improve efficiency for short range flights, however, a multi-tank configuration resulted in a higher weight and hence greater energy consumption for long range flights.
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