Optimization of an Advanced Open Rotor Engine for Civil Transport

An advanced open rotor concept is considered to power a civil subsonic transport aircraft. A pressure-gain combustor is introduced to improve engine performance. Cooling mass flow and power necessary to compress cooling air are taken into account considering different cooling effectiveness. A thermodynamic model, that showed to give reasonable values of pressure gain as a function of combustor temperature ratio, is used to evaluate pressure gain feasibility. An optimization procedure based on a cooperative evolutionary algorithm, which synergistically exploits differential evolution, genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization, is used to minimize the aircraft take-off gross weight, given payload, take-off and landing distances, time to climb to cruise altitude, and range. Different performance indexes are also considered for the sake of comparison. The procedure provides the optimal values of wing loading and engine design variables. A fuel reduction larger than 5% with respect to an open rotor with conventional burner is expected, even considering an engine weight penalty due to pressure-gain combustor features.

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