Flight Thrust, Power, and Energy Relations

Lab 1 Lecture Notes

Nomenclature D aircraft drag L aircraft lift W total aircraft weight We empty aircraft weight Wp payload weight V ight speed d ight distance S reference area (wing area) b wing span A R wing aspect ratio CL aircraft lift coecient CD aircraft drag coecient CD A0 drag area of non-wing components T Tc Pprop Pshaft Eshaft R prop v i Re c cd

5 Feb 09

propeller thrust thrust coecient propulsive thrust power ( T V ) motor shaft power motor shaft energy expended propeller radius overall propeller eciency prole propeller eciency (viscous loss) Froude propeller eciency (inviscid loss) chord Reynolds number wing-airfoil prole lift coecient wing-airfoil prole drag coecient air density

Thrust Power Generation of thrust in ight requires the expenditure of power. For a propeller or a jetengine fan, the shaft power and the thrust are related by the denition of propeller eciency. TV Pprop prop Pshaft Pshaft (1)

The prop is the product of a viscous prole eciency v which accounts for the viscous prole drag on the blades, and an inviscid Froude eciency i which accounts for the kinetic energy lost in the accelerated propwash. prop = v i An upper limit and estimate of i is related to the dimensionless Thrust Coecient Tc . i Tc Limiting cases are Tc 1 , i 1 : Pshaft Tc 1 , i 1 : Pshaft T 3/2 1 1 (2 )1/2 R v 1 TV v , , (Heavy loading, low-speed takeo) (5) (Light loading, high-speed cruise) (6) 2 1 + 1 + Tc T 1 2 V R2 2 (3) (4) (2)

Both Tc and i are seen to strongly depend on the thrust and ight speed, and also on the propeller radius. In contrast, v does not vary much and is often considered a constant. 1

Level-Flight Relations In level ight we have W = L, which gives the velocity in terms of aircraft parameters. W = L = V 1 2 V S CL 2 1/2 2W = S CL (7) (8)

In steady level ight we also have T = D , in which case the thrust and the propulsive thrust power can then be given as follows. T = D = Pprop = T V = DV = 1 2 CD V S CD = W 2 CL 1 3 V S CD = 2 2W 3 S
1/2

(9) CD CL
3/2

(10)

In the level-ight case we can also express the thrust coecient and hence the prop Froude eciency in an alternative and somewhat more convenient manner. Tc = T
1 V 2 2

R2

1 V 2 2

D S = CD R2 R2

(11)

Drag Breakdown To obtain the required thrust or propulsive power via (9) or (10), we need the overall aircraft drag coecient CD , which is broken down into three basic components. CD =
2 CD A0 CL + cd (CL , Re) + S A R

(12)

The rst term gives the combined drag of all the non-wing components, such as the fuselage, tail, landing gear, etc. The second term is the wing prole drag, estimated from the wings 2D airfoil cd (c , Re) data, and by assuming that the typical wing airfoil operates at c CL . The last term is the induced drag coecient CDi , which depends on CL and the aspect ratio of the wing. A R = b2 S (13)

Figure 1 shows the three CD components versus CL for a typical 1.5 m span light RC sport aircraft. For a typical operating point at CL = 1.0 (low speed) and CL = 0.3 (high speed), indicated by the symbols in Figure 1, the three components contribute roughly the following percentages to the total drag: CL 1.0 0.3 1.0 0.3 CD A0 /S 0.0167 0.0167 18 % 39 % cd 0.0335 0.0220 37 % 52 % 2
2 CL /A R

CD 0.0909 0.0424 100 % 100 %

0.0406 0.0037 45 % 9%

1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 CL 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.00 CDAo/S cd CDi CD

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08 CD

0.10

0.12

0.14

0.16

Figure 1: Drag polar and drag polar components for electric sport aircraft. A R = 9.0
10

Pprop [W]

6 V [m/s]

10

12

14

Figure 2: Propulsive thrust power Pprop = DV = T V for electric sport aircraft. The corresponding propulsive power is shown in Figure 2. Minimum Flight Energy for Given Payload It is of great interest to reduce the ight energy (and hence the fuel consumption) of an aircraft as much as possible, while still carrying the required payload. Assuming that the total aircraft weight does not change appreciably during ight, the time t and shaft energy Eshaft required to y a distance d is t = d V Td prop (14) (15)

Eshaft = Pshaft t =

Combining the relations and assumptions above, we have the following summary relations

for a sustained level ight of distance d. CD 1 1 1 S + CD (We + Wp ) d = 1+ 2 v 2 2 R CL

1/2

Eshaft

(16)

Pshaft

2(We + Wp )3 1 1 1 S + C = 1+ D v 2 2 R2 S CD =

CD CL
3/2

(17)

where

C2 S CD A0 + cd (CL , Re) + L 2 S b

(18)

The auxilliary CD expression (18) is the same as (12), restated here for convenience. Parameter Coupling and Design Optimization Any change in the aircraft variables which permits a reduction of Eshaft as given by equation (16), with a xed Wp , will give a reduction in energy or fuel consumption. However, its essential to realize that most of the variables and parameters in equations (16) and (18) are coupled in an actual design application, so the eect of changing one will have multiple side eects, with the net eect being nonobvious. One example which might appear if one attempts to reduce Eshaft by increasing the wing area S . One immediately-apparent benet of a larger S is: Pro: Reduction of the rst CD A0 term in (18) There are also obvious drawbacks: Con: Increase in the rst propeller loss term in (16) Con: Increase in the last induced drag term in (18) Furthermore, there will likely be additional drawbacks which are not explicitly apparent: Con: Increase in the empty weight We because of more wing material, etc. Other Pros and Cons may be present in addition to those listed above, depending on the situation. Much of the activity which occurs during aircraft design and sizing consists of identifying and quantifying such couplings. Knowing the couplings then allows suitable tradeos to be performed, in order to nd the best set of design parameters to maximize the design objective. Once a good or optimum design has been reached, all its competing tradeos are in balance, so that there are no more easy design changes which can be made without adversely aecting something else. 4