Methodology for Estimating Full Electric Rotorcraft Performance

Abstract:
The current work presents a methodology to estimate the mission and performance capabilities of a generic rotorcraft configuration, to satisfy the need of evaluating the integration of a full electric powertrain in the aircraft design. To include all the design steps, two different approaches are proposed. For the preliminary phase, the "Analytic Method" is considered, which exploits a purely resistive model. Conversely, a method based on look-up tables called "Table Method" is intended to be used in more advanced phase, when the battery pack is defined. Both approaches are tested by evaluating a reference mission and a hover chart. Finally, a verification of the presented methodology is carried out by comparing the mission results with a commercial software, specialized in the evaluation of the cell discharge when a given power spectrum is provided.

Did you attend Forum 82? Click the preview below to access the full paper.