Flight Power Relations

Lab 1 Lecture Notes

Nomenclature D aircraft drag L aircraft lift W aircraft weight T propeller thrust V ight speed S reference area (wing area) b wing span A R wing aspect ratio CL lift coecient CD drag coecient CD A0 drag area of non-wing components c wing-airfoil prole lift coecient cd wing-airfoil prole drag coecient air density P Pshaft Pelec m p ideal R Tc m Re Eelec tmax

9 Feb 06

thrust power ( T V ) motor shaft power electric power (Volts Amps) electric motor eciency overall propeller eciency ideal propeller eciency propeller radius thrust coecient motor rotation rate propeller rotation rate propeller advance ratio chord Reynolds number electrical (battery) energy maximum ight duration

Thrust Power Generation of thrust during ight requires the expenditure of power. In steady level ight, T = D , and hence the thrust power is equal to the drag power. P T V = DV (steady level ight) (1)

In steady level ight we also have W = L, which gives the velocity in terms of other relevant parameters. W = L = V 1 2 V S CL 2 1/2 2W = S CL (2) (3)

The drag power can then be given as follows. DV DV = 1 3 V S CD 2 1/2 CD 2W 3 = 3/2 S CL (4) (5)

We will assume that the typical wing airfoil sees the same local c as the overall aircraft CL , so we can employ 2D airfoil cd (c , Re) data. c = C L The aircraft drag coecient can now be broken down into three basic components. CD =
2 CL CD A0 + cd (CL , Re) + S A R

(6)

(7)

The last term is the induced drag, which directly depends on the aspect ratio of the wing. This is dened in terms of the wing span and area. A R = b2 S (8)

Figure 1 shows the three CD components versus CL for a typical 1.5 m span light RC sport aircraft.
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 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 CL / A R

CD 0.0909 0.0424 100 % 100 %

0.0406 0.0037 45 % 9%

The corresponding ight power is shown in Figure 2. Flight Power and Duration In an electric aircraft, the ight power is provided by an electric motor, driving a propeller with some eciency p . P = p Pshaft (9)

The motor itself has eciency m , and is supplied by a battery which outputs electrical power Pelec . Pshaft = m Pelec P = p m Pelec (10) (11)

10

6 P [W] 4 2 0 0

6 V [m/s]

10

12

14

Figure 2: Thrust power P = DV for electric sport aircraft. Combining the relations above, the electrical power required for level ight is given by the following relation: 1 1 P = = p m p m 2W 3 S
1/2

Pelec

CD A0 /S CL
3/2

cd CL
3/2

C + L A R

1/2

(12)

For a given available battery energy Eelec , the maximum ight duration is then inversely proportional to the minimum possible electrical power needed to sustain ight. tmax = Eelec (Pelec )min (13)

Hence, for a xed amount of battery energy, the maximum duration is obtained by minimizing Pelec . As suggested by Figure 2, this minimum power typically occurs close to the minimum possible ight speed just short of stall. To obtain maximum speed, it is clearly necessary to use the maximum available electrical power. The maximum speed (or minimum CL ), is then implicitly determined by equation (12). Pelec = (Pelec )max CLmin , Vmax (14)

Parameter Coupling and Design Optimization Its essential to realize that most of the variables in equation (12) are coupled in an actual design application. So that when one design parameter is changed, its eects on equation (12) can enter in a number of ways, not just via its explicit appearance. Two examples which might appear if one attempts to decrease (Pelec )min : Increase the wing area S Pro: Direct 1/S 1/2 reduction of Pelec , direct 1/S reduction of the CD A0 term Con: Increases the aircrafts weight W because of more wing material Con: May require increasing W even more for adequate strength 3

 Con: Reduces V , which increases Tc , which decreases ideal , which decreases p Use more ecient motor, with larger m . Pro: Direct 1/m reduction of Pelec Con: More ecient motor may be heavier, and hence may increase W . 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.