In line with Zero Emission Aviation (ZEROe), the aim is to bring a hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft to market by 2035. To this end, the ZEBRA project is developing a range of hybrid-electric regional aircraft configurations, focusing on identifying technically feasible, safe and economically viable technologies and optimising efficiency.
Motivation and background
In order to enable hydrogen-powered aircraft and thus enable emission-free and climate-neutral aviation in the near future, it is essential to conduct research into the technologies that will influence the airframe. The development and evaluation of new propulsion concepts, such as distributed propulsion, hydrogen cells and propellers, present significant challenges at the aircraft level. Furthermore, an acoustic assessment of noise emissions into the cabin is crucial to ensure market acceptance, given the switch to propeller engines.
As a major national research institution, DLR is contributing a wide range of specialised and integrative expertise to this project. Consequently, it can draw on existing design chains that have been demonstrated to be effective in numerous internal and external projects, thus providing a foundation for the assessment of technology potential and cabin acoustics in this project.
Objective
Within the aviation research program project ZEBRA, the sub-project ZEBRA-DLR has the following objectives:
Research into the efficient integration of novel propulsion technologies (fuel cells & distributed electric drives) and their energy storage with a focus on sustainability, climate impact and cabin acoustics.
Overall aircraft design of novel configurations incorporating ZEROe technologies, considering detailed aerodynamic, propulsion, acoustic and structural investigations.
Flight physics and economic evaluation of aircraft concepts with ZEROe technologies in comparison to conventional concepts.
Demonstration of the potential to enhance the efficiency of propulsion performance during cruise flight by optimising distributed electric drives and their arrangement using airframe interferences, i.e. the aerodynamic and structural-mechanical interactions of nacelles, pods and propellers.
The numerical design and analysis methods used to evaluate vibroacoustic effects and load analysis for regional class aircraft with novel propulsion architectures and the dry-wing concept will be developed further.
Development of passive, active and hybrid noise-reducing measures for integration into the primary and secondary structure of future aircraft configurations.
Development of optimisation strategies for the efficient integration of noise-reducing measures on the primary and secondary structure of future aircraft configurations.
Feedback of the results from the detailed investigations into the overall aircraft design for an improved technology evaluation at aircraft level and research into the overall system capability of the propulsion technology.
Project
ZEBRA - Zero Emission Baseline and Refined Architectures
Duration
05/2024 - 04/2027
Partners
Airbus Operation GmbH (Consortium project management)
Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
DLR Institute of Aeroelasticity (DLR project management)
DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology
DLR Institute of Lightweight Systems
DLR Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics
Type of project
Research project in the aviation research program VI-3
Funding code
20M2240B
Funding organisation
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK)
Credit:
BMWK (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action )
