The VENUS project is devoted to an improved understanding of key aspects involved in Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) configurations, at experimental and numerical level and with a specific attention on the acoustic impact. Indeed, the physical mechanisms driving the noise generated by many propellers, very close to each other, and often one in the wake of the other, are very complex. Moreover, finding information about methods, tools and strategies for aeroacoustic assessment of DEP in literature is nearly impossible.
VENUS project is moved by the motivation to develop new knowledge, and spread it across Europe for the benefit of researchers and aircraft manufacturers. The design of an Open-Test-Case DEP configuration for a regional aircraft has been provided and investigated through a comprehensive experimental campaign aimed at measuring aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performances in a wide range of different engine installation configurations and operational conditions.
Apart from the increase of propulsion efficiency, the successful adoption of DEP can create indirect benefits in terms of wing structural weight and thus fuel consumption. Fuel and weight reductions are both enablers for cheaper and more affordable flights, with consequent benefits in terms of business and societal impacts.
In terms of noise, it has been shown that a strong benefit can be gained in terms of acoustic performance from DEP configurations against conventional propulsion system, mainly at take-off. On the other hand, due to the lack of extensive acoustic investigations, the annoyance ratings in terms of psychoacoustic cannot be valuated accurately. VENUS will overcome these limitations by providing numerical and experimental data to cover this gap, and thus letting the scientific community improve aeroacoustic studies with the aim to improve comfort of passengers and people living in the neighbourhood of airports. The consequent impact of VENUS on the whole society is then immediate and tangible.
The overall impact of VENUS can thus be far reaching. An experimental data-base under open access aimed at improving knowledge, methods and procedures for more performing DEP configurations will find its implementation in the future commercial regional aircraft with a clear impact on business (cost reduction), environment (greener aircraft in terms of both noise and pollution) and society (safer and more affordable flights).The aim of VENUS is to design an advanced DEP configuration for regional aircraft, and to understand key design features driving the aeroacoustic performance by both numerical and experimental analyses, with the objective to generate high-resolution aerodynamic and aeroacoustic experimental data, to be finally disclosed under open access for the European scientific community.
To reach this macro objective the following activities have been carried out:
• Methods and tools enabling a concurrent aerodynamic and aeroacoustic design of DEP configuration aircraft, have been developed;
• A new regional aircraft configuration, in terms of wing and engines’ installation, to target a DEP which is optimized in terms of aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance, has been designed;
• Possible benefits of different technologies aimed at mitigating noise emissions, have been assessed;
• A representative test article for WT aeroacoustic tests, able to allow for configuration changes, in terms of engine-wing and engine-engine installation configurations, and to test the selected noise mitigation technologies, has been designed and manufactured;
• Test article and WT have been instrumented, and experimental parameterized tests have been performed successfully;
• A final experimental-numerical assessment has been carried out for calibrating and validating numerical models;
• Open access to all the produced models, data and documents for other institutions for in-house developed methods validation, have been provided with the objective to establish an “open test-case” for the whole European scientific community, unique in the aircraft design landscape.
