Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MOREandLESS (MDO and REgulations for Low-boom and Environmentally Sustainable Supersonic aviation)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-01-01 al 2022-06-30
The request for a faster, greener and quieter civil aviation is urging the worldwide scientific community and aerospace industry to develop a new generation of supersonic aircraft, which are expected to be environmentally sustainable and to guarantee a high-level protection of citizens. Thanks to a considerable number of research activities carried out in the last decades, some innovative supersonic aircraft concepts have now the potential to assure technically viable solutions to fly beyond the speed of sound at higher altitudes with respect to current civil aviation, but no commonly agreed regulations and procedures to support they eventual operations do exist. To pursue this challenging goal, MORE&LESS (MDO and REgulations for Low boom and Environmentally Sustainable Supersonic aviation), answering to the EC call “Towards global environmental regulation of supersonic aviation” (LC-MG-1-15-2020), aims at supporting Europe to shape global environmental regulations for future supersonic aviation: recommendations are established on the basis of the outcomes of extensive high-fidelity modelling activities and test campaigns that merge into the multi-disciplinary optimization framework to assess the holistic impact of supersonic aviation onto environment. To seek this goal, MORE&LESS addresses the following objectives:
1) To assess near and far-future supersonic aviation paradigms, considering low and high-supersonic aircraft and missions;
2) To contribute maintaining citizens and environmental protection at local, regional and global levels, by thoroughly assessing pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as noise generated by supersonic aircraft;
3) To support the definition of regulations and procedures for the future supersonic aviation, by suggesting practical implementation actions based on the results obtained within the Project in different disciplines;
4) To contribute maintaining world-class knowledge and skills in Europe in the field of supersonic aviation, by creating synergies among the most important partners and key players;
5) To foster international cooperation, paving the way towards the definition of global and internationally agreed regulations, by involving partners within a proper advisory board supporting the Project in maintaining a worldwide vision;
6) To engage and inspire new generations of students, scientists and engineers through dedicated dissemination actions and initiatives.
1) To assess near and far-future supersonic aviation paradigms, considering low and high-supersonic aircraft and missions;
2) To contribute maintaining citizens and environmental protection at local, regional and global levels, by thoroughly assessing pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as noise generated by supersonic aircraft;
3) To support the definition of regulations and procedures for the future supersonic aviation, by suggesting practical implementation actions based on the results obtained within the Project in different disciplines;
4) To contribute maintaining world-class knowledge and skills in Europe in the field of supersonic aviation, by creating synergies among the most important partners and key players;
5) To foster international cooperation, paving the way towards the definition of global and internationally agreed regulations, by involving partners within a proper advisory board supporting the Project in maintaining a worldwide vision;
6) To engage and inspire new generations of students, scientists and engineers through dedicated dissemination actions and initiatives.
The work performed within the Project and the main results achieved for this reporting period, with reference to the established objectives can be summarized as follows:
1) Conceptual design of different supersonic aircraft was performed, ranging from low to high-supersonic regimes, and a first set of reference vehicles configurations was identified. Exploitation of sustainable fuels such as bio-fuels and liquid hydrogen was taken into account and comparisons with potential subsonic competitors were performed in terms of main key performance and environmental indicators;
2) Evaluation of Landing and Take-Off (LTO) cycle of aforementioned aircraft in terms of local pollutant emissions and noise levels was performed and proper computations aimed at quantifying the sonic boom effect (en-route noise) were implemented through proper algorithms. Impact of supersonic aviation was also preliminarily studied in terms of global impact on climate;
3) A comprehensive analysis of environmental regulations and standards for supersonic aircraft, both existing and under development, was done, identifying where an evolution of rulemaking process is needed, including adaptation of subsonic standards to the supersonic regime. MORE&LESS aircraft performance data, preliminarily available in this reporting period, were used to describe reference flight profiles of supersonic aircraft, allowing to develop recommendations for adaptation of the CO2 and noise standards to supersonic aircraft, with synergies with the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO);
4) Enhancements on the understanding of the phenomena associated to sonic boom, jet noise, pollutant emissions from new fuels combustion as well as related environmental impact have been achieved and the work is in progress to complete relevant analyses in the different scientific fields. Improvements to the modelling accuracy within aerodynamics and propulsion systems analyses, as well as a wider comprehension of atmosphere mechanisms were achieved. Examples include, but are not limited to, the development of new models for the evaluation of kinetic mechanisms able to describe combustion of new fuels (including liquid hydrogen), as well as algorithms for the sensitivity analysis of ozone response to supersonic emissions of several chemical species at different altitudes. Additional results are expected until the end of the Project;
5) Initial comparison of EU and US rulemaking process and contents was performed in the field of supersonic aviation. The involvement of international partners coming both from the European and American contexts allowed for a fruitful cooperation and discussions with reference to key environmental and societal aspects of supersonic aviation, with promising outcomes envisaged for the end of the Project;
6) Dissemination actions such as lecture series and new academic courses for engineering and scientific faculties have been started, with the aim of emphasizing environmental aspects as key elements of new aircraft design theories. The MORE&LESS Academy, an initiative specifically devoted to engage new generations of undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students and professors with relevant and up to date topics on supersonic and sustainable aviation, was started for the first time. Participation of the partners to the main technical conferences and dissemination events, with relevant publications in the different scientific fields, was another key aspect of this objective. Development and periodic update of Project profiles on social networks was also set up in order to target young generations of students and professionals.
1) Conceptual design of different supersonic aircraft was performed, ranging from low to high-supersonic regimes, and a first set of reference vehicles configurations was identified. Exploitation of sustainable fuels such as bio-fuels and liquid hydrogen was taken into account and comparisons with potential subsonic competitors were performed in terms of main key performance and environmental indicators;
2) Evaluation of Landing and Take-Off (LTO) cycle of aforementioned aircraft in terms of local pollutant emissions and noise levels was performed and proper computations aimed at quantifying the sonic boom effect (en-route noise) were implemented through proper algorithms. Impact of supersonic aviation was also preliminarily studied in terms of global impact on climate;
3) A comprehensive analysis of environmental regulations and standards for supersonic aircraft, both existing and under development, was done, identifying where an evolution of rulemaking process is needed, including adaptation of subsonic standards to the supersonic regime. MORE&LESS aircraft performance data, preliminarily available in this reporting period, were used to describe reference flight profiles of supersonic aircraft, allowing to develop recommendations for adaptation of the CO2 and noise standards to supersonic aircraft, with synergies with the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO);
4) Enhancements on the understanding of the phenomena associated to sonic boom, jet noise, pollutant emissions from new fuels combustion as well as related environmental impact have been achieved and the work is in progress to complete relevant analyses in the different scientific fields. Improvements to the modelling accuracy within aerodynamics and propulsion systems analyses, as well as a wider comprehension of atmosphere mechanisms were achieved. Examples include, but are not limited to, the development of new models for the evaluation of kinetic mechanisms able to describe combustion of new fuels (including liquid hydrogen), as well as algorithms for the sensitivity analysis of ozone response to supersonic emissions of several chemical species at different altitudes. Additional results are expected until the end of the Project;
5) Initial comparison of EU and US rulemaking process and contents was performed in the field of supersonic aviation. The involvement of international partners coming both from the European and American contexts allowed for a fruitful cooperation and discussions with reference to key environmental and societal aspects of supersonic aviation, with promising outcomes envisaged for the end of the Project;
6) Dissemination actions such as lecture series and new academic courses for engineering and scientific faculties have been started, with the aim of emphasizing environmental aspects as key elements of new aircraft design theories. The MORE&LESS Academy, an initiative specifically devoted to engage new generations of undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students and professors with relevant and up to date topics on supersonic and sustainable aviation, was started for the first time. Participation of the partners to the main technical conferences and dissemination events, with relevant publications in the different scientific fields, was another key aspect of this objective. Development and periodic update of Project profiles on social networks was also set up in order to target young generations of students and professionals.
The completion of the applied research activities within the fields of aircraft characterization (including aero-propulsive and mission analyses), as well as pollutant emissions computation, and noise level estimations, will allow the Project to move from the analysis and simulation stage to the real test campaigns, assessing key environmental aspects of the reference aircraft and validating the previously defined models. Potential updates and upgrades to the main algorithms associated to conceptual design, aerodynamic analysis, propulsive system characterization, combustion modelling, pollutant emission prediction and noise levels determination as well as climate impact, will be delivered to pave the way towards the final steps of the Project. Next steps will focus on the application of an integrated optimization framework aimed at the identification of optimal mission concepts for the different supersonic regimes. This will allow identifying the best concept of operations for low and high-supersonic aircraft concepts, minimizing environmental impact and producing a relevant example of future aviation scenarios, to be used as reference in order to provide final suggestions to the rulemaking actors around the world for the definition of a common regulatory framework in the field.