Descripción del proyecto
Innovador motor de émbolo para soluciones de combustible asequibles
Las aeronaves tradicionales de la aviación en general dependen en gran medida del combustible avgas, lo que se traduce en costes elevados debido a la producción limitada y a las restricciones de compatibilidad con los motores Continental o Lycoming. El equipo del proyecto EINSTAIN, financiado con fondos europeos, ofrecerá una solución revolucionaria al introducir un innovador motor de émbolo de encendido por compresión. Esta novedosa tecnología permite una notable reducción del 50 % en el consumo de combustible, lo que se traduce en un importante ahorro de costes. Al adaptar el motor para utilizar queroseno o combustibles de aviación, el equipo del proyecto pretende reducir aún más los precios, y hacer a la aviación más accesible y rentable. Con planes para demostrar su eficiencia, el proyecto EINSTAIN está llamado a transformar el futuro de la aviación en general.
Objetivo
"Nowadays, almost all General Aviation piston-powered aircrafts are powered by Avgas fuel. For decades, piston engines like Lycoming and Continental were allowed to burn only this type of fuel, which is characterized by high-octane values, very low vapor pressure indexes and high costs because of its poor production quantity, tracked and certified production and high performances.
The “compression ignition” engine can provide a fuel consumption reduction from 30% to 50% compared to Avgas engine. An additional benefit of the replacement of Avgas piston engine with a diesel engine is obtained due to the reduced fuel price.
This “compression ignition” piston engines are able and certified to operate with kerosene and/or Jet fuels, so their use is justified in areas, such as Europe, Africa, Russia, China and many others, where aviation gasoline (Avgas, also known as 100LL) cost is significantly higher than jet fuels.
Therefore the objective of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of an efficient “diesel” engine installation on a FAR/EASA Part23, 9 to 11 seats twin engine aircraft configuration and reduce as much as possible the related increase in drag, respect to a conventional engine, by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the design phase.
In order to achieve this goal the SR460, a six-cylinders, air/oil-cooled turbo-diesel engine produced by SMA, will be used as reference and installed on the TECNAM P2012 TRAVELLER aircraft. The main advantages are reported as following:
• The average fuel consumption will be of around 45kg/hr/engine against an average of 130kg/hr of a turboprop engine;
• P2012 will be the first twin engine aircraft available in both ""Avgas"" and ""kerosene"" capable variants;
• P2012 with SR460 will have a very competitive acquisition cost, comparable to the same-passengers’ capability of the single engine turboprop.
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Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsliquid fuels
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraft
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsfluid dynamicscomputational fluid dynamics
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaeronautical engineering
- social sciencessocial geographytransportpublic transport
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
CS2-IA - Innovation actionCoordinador
80042 BOSCOTRECASE (NA)
Italia
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.