MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019)

https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

Design of distributed propulsion system for

general aviation airplane
Pavel Hospodář1, Jan Klesa1, and Nikola Žižkovský1,*
1
CTU Prague, Department of Aerospace Engineering, 16607 Praha 6, Czech Republic

Abstract. In this paper, a small airplane is redesigned by using a

distributed electrical propulsion (DEP) system. The design procedure is
focused on the reduction of fuel consumption in cruise regime with
constrained parameters of take-off/landing. In this case, a one half wing
area compared to an original airplane is used. Take-off distance and
minimum airspeed for landing is achieved by distributed propellers
mounted on the leading edge of the wing. These propellers induce velocity
on the wing and thereby increase local dynamic pressure, thus the required
lift force can be reached with smaller wing area. Moreover, the distributed
propellers are assumed as folded in cruise regime to minimize drag when
the main combustion engine provides sufficient power.

1 Introduction
Distributed electric propulsion (DEP) are often used to design new kind of airplane in
the last decade [1],[2]. It enables to create high efficiency airplane in cruise regime and
provides extremely short take-off and landing distance [3]. In this paper a different
approach is used. In this paper the real general aviation airplane is used to redesign wing to
use of DEP. Current fuselage, horizontal and vertical tails and propulsion system are used,
only wing is modified.
It is a kind of hybrid power system [4], where distributed propellers are electrically
powered and original combustion engine, located in the front of fuselage, provides the
required amount of power for cruise regime. The power of DEP system in the take-
off/landing regime is provided from a battery, while those are charged in cruise regime or at
ground.
The weight of batteries, engines, electrical controllers and fuel are assumed in the
optimization procedure which is using response surface optimization. Design of propeller
and their characteristics are computed by Blade element momentum theory and the
propeller-wing interaction is calculated by lifting line theory in a non-linear form [5]. It
offers a design of multi-propeller wing with high lift devices. Optimal configurations are
compared with results of CFD calculations for main regimes.
One of the main advantages of DEP airplane is high aerodynamic efficiency in cruise
regime. For that reason, a different smaller wing area geometry was calculated to reach

*
Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

optimal solution. Unfortunately, smaller wing area directly influences a total lift force and
is defined as follows:
1
L = 𝜌𝜌𝑣𝑣�� 𝑐𝑐� 𝑆𝑆� (1)
2
where 𝜌𝜌 is air density, 𝑣𝑣� is freestreem airpeed, 𝑐𝑐� is lift coefficient and 𝑆𝑆� is original
wing area. Thanks to DEP we can reach required total lift force for smaller wing area due to
velocity 𝑣𝑣� induced by propellers:
1
L = 𝜌𝜌(𝑣𝑣� + 𝑣𝑣� )� 𝑐𝑐� 𝑆𝑆 (2)
2

2 Cruise wing selection

As mentioned in the introduction, four different wings are computed to find out the best
solution for cruise regime. After that a flight performance is calculated to determine a fuel
consumption and finally a DEP system is defined.

1.1 Wing aerodynamic characteristics

A low and high-fidelity computational method are used for that purpose. Lifting line
theory as low fidelity method is used for calculation of wings aerodynamic characteristic in
preliminary design. The geometries are created for constant wing span and taper ratio and
four different areas. Geometry of wings are depicted in the following figure:

Fig. 1. Geometry of wings with different area

As baseline geometry is used wing of general aviation 10 seater aircraft with weight
2500 kg, cruise speed 400 kph at FL200 and expected range 2500 km. The whole aircraft
with zeroed elevators deflection, original and half scaled wing was simulated with CFD as
high-fidelity method. Distributed propulsion system with nacelles is applied on half sized
wing only. The geometry is intended as symmetrical, so only half of wing is simulated.
As solver is used Open Foam with Reynolds Averaged Simulation (RAS/RANS) model
with turbulence modeled by Spalart-Allmaras model applied on compressible steady flow.
Boundary layer is solved directly without wall functions. In computational mesh is applied
mesh refinement behind wing in length of two chords, which impacts drag characteristic
and decay of swirl behind actuator disc. The computational mesh is represented by snapped
hex mesh, a hexa-dominant mesh with hanging nodes, combined with prism cells near wall
boundary conditions. Number of cells in generated meshes varies from 12 to 17 millions
cells, depending on geometry and angle of attack.
Propulsion is simulated with actuator disc method with customized interpretation. In
this interpretation radial chord and twist distribution is defined. On half sized wing, ten

2
MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

propulsors is applied in constant distance from leading edge. In center of each propulsor,
the nacelles are modelled as rounded cylinders with constant diameter, length and local
position referenced to local leading edge position.

Fig. 2. Geometries used for CFD calculations

With respect to computational demands were calculated just several points of
aerodynamic polar. Integral characteristic of whole aircraft with original sized wing were
compared to characteristics obtained by measurement in wind tunnel on model of whole
aircraft in scale 1:6.5. The differences between wind tunnel experiment and calculated
characteristics are given by different slightly different geometry in wing fuselage junction
and wing tips, where original wingtips were equipped with winglets. Comparison between
results from low and high-fidelity method gives good coincidence.

Fig. 3. Aerodynamic characteristics of wings with different calculated by lifting line theory

1.2 Fuel saving and mass consequences

To determine a total fuel saving of aircraft with smaller wing an iterative program is
developed. In each second a required lift is calculated for specified mass. Then
aerodynamic drag is interpolated and required power is determined. Aerodynamic drag of
airplane is calculated as a sum of aerodynamic drag of the wing and fuselage. After that a
fuel consumption is calculated based on specific fuel consumption of PT6A-42 jet engine
which is 0.366 kg/kWh. New weight of airplane is computed and process are repeated until
reaching of range 2500 km.

3
MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

This process is used for original aircraft and aircraft with half wing’s  area and it results
to fuel consumption 690 kg of airplane with original wing and 428 kg for half wing area. It
is around 38 % fuel saving related to original airplane. The saving mass of 262 kg is
divided following manner. 45 % (118 kg) of saving mass is determined to additional
payload and 55 % (144 kg) is used for purpose of DEP system.
Current DEP system consists of engines, electronic speed controllers (ECS), battery
storages and cables. All of these parts can be defined by specific mass - as a ratio to its
weight.
EMRAX (U = 400 V) [6] engine is selected in this example because of its high voltage
and has power to weight ratio 𝑚𝑚̇� = 5.8   kW/kg. ECS is defined by following power to
weight ratio 𝑚𝑚̇��� = 30 kW/kg. The batteries are used only in landing regime and they are
assumed full charged. Research of battery predicts a relatively large increasing of energy
per kilo, but today best values are around 300~400 kW/kg. We choice commonly used
battery with 20C current discharging and its capacity to weight ratio is 𝑚𝑚̇� =165 kWh/kg.
Last part of DEP system are cables. These are defined as current-weight ratio 𝑚𝑚̇� =  2000  
A/(kg.m). In this point an equation to determine mass distribution of all segments are
defined as follows:
𝑃𝑃 𝑃𝑃 𝑃𝑃. 𝑡𝑡 𝑃𝑃 𝑑𝑑
𝑚𝑚� = + + + ∙ (3)
𝑚𝑚̇� 𝑚𝑚̇��� 𝑚𝑚̇� 𝑚𝑚̇� 𝑈𝑈

where P is total power suitable for DEP, t is time of DEP usage (it is assumed 120
seconds), d is length of electrical cables and U is voltage. In this case a mass used for DEP
system is 𝑚𝑚� = 144 kg. Previous equation has only one unknow – power and can be easily
solved. The solution is depicted in following picture.

Fig. 4. Mass distribution of DEP system

4
MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

2 Design of distributed system

In this chapter a design of system that enables to get landing characteristics for smaller
wing. Analytical approach to define number of propeller and their size is developed. At the
end an aerodynamic characteristic of wing with distributed electric propulsion is computed.

2.1 DEP sizing

Design of distributed electric propulsion system is based on landing requirement and

suitable power for electric engine. Required value that has to be reached is total lift at
landing speed. Equation that describes lift for original airplane and half wing area airplane
is described follows:
1 � 1 � 𝑆𝑆���
𝜌𝜌𝑣𝑣 𝑐𝑐 𝑆𝑆 = 𝜌𝜌�𝑣𝑣� + 𝑣𝑣� � 𝑐𝑐� (4)
2 � � ��� 2 2

where 𝑆𝑆��� is area of original wing,  𝑣𝑣� is freestream velocity and 𝑣𝑣� is propeller induced
velocity. After simplification we get value of required induced velocity:
𝑣𝑣� = 𝑣𝑣� �√2 − 1� (5)

Using an actuator disk theory, we can derive thrust of propeller:

𝑇𝑇 = 𝑚𝑚̇(𝑣𝑣��� − 𝑣𝑣� ) = 𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌𝑣𝑣���� (𝑣𝑣��� − 𝑣𝑣� ) (6)

where 𝜌𝜌 is air density, 𝐴𝐴 is actuator disk area, 𝑣𝑣���� is velocity in the actuator disk, 𝑣𝑣��� is
velocity behind the propeller and 𝑣𝑣� is freestream velocity. Further power per disk is
determined as:
𝑃𝑃� = 𝜂𝜂���� 𝑇𝑇𝑣𝑣���� (7)

In the next step a geometry relation between wing span, propeller disk area and number of
propellers are defined. Radius of propeller is given by:
𝑙𝑙
𝑟𝑟 = (8)
2  𝑛𝑛

where 𝑙𝑙 is semi-span wing without fuselage and 𝑛𝑛 is number of propellers per semi-span.
Then a propeller area can be defined as:
𝜋𝜋 𝑙𝑙 �
𝐴𝐴 = 𝜋𝜋𝑟𝑟 � = (9)
4 𝑛𝑛�

Total power for DEP 𝑃𝑃��� is 338 kW (Fig. 3). Half of this power is used for semi-span:
𝑃𝑃���
= 𝑃𝑃� 𝑛𝑛 = 𝜂𝜂���� 𝑇𝑇𝑣𝑣���� 𝑛𝑛 (10)
2

The number of propellers is defined from previous equation after substitution of thrust from
eq. 6 and propeller area from eq. 9:
𝑃𝑃��� 𝜋𝜋 𝑙𝑙 � �
= 𝜂𝜂���� 𝜌𝜌 𝑣𝑣 (𝑣𝑣 − 𝑣𝑣� )𝑛𝑛 (11)
2 4 𝑛𝑛� ���� ���

5
MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

After rearrangement of previous equation and substitution of 𝑣𝑣��� = 2𝑣𝑣� − 𝑣𝑣� and
substitution of 𝑣𝑣� = 𝑣𝑣� + 𝑣𝑣� we get following equation:
𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌𝑙𝑙 �
𝑛𝑛 = 𝜂𝜂���� 𝑣𝑣 (𝑣𝑣 + 𝑣𝑣� )� (12)
𝑃𝑃��� � �

Now we substitute equation 5 into previous form and after rearrangement we get final
equation for determining of the number of propellers for half area wing:
𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌𝑙𝑙 � �
𝑛𝑛 = 𝜂𝜂���� 2𝑣𝑣� �√2 − 1� (13)
𝑃𝑃���

2.2 Propeller design

Method used for propeller aerodynamic design was described in [9]. It is simple but
efficient method. It is based on the combination of the blade element momentum theory
(BEMT), Betz's law (detailed description can be found in [7]) and Prandtl's loss function
(detailed description in appendix to [7]). It represents simplified version of the Goldstein's
method [8]. Input parameters for the computation are engine power, propeller diameter,
RPM, number of blades, flight velocity, airfoil characteristics in design point and air
density. The outputs are blade twist and chord distribution along the blade. It is depicted the
propeller geometry generated by Larrabee method in the following picture as a function of
propeller span
0,4 100
c/R [1]
0,35
β  [deg] 80
0,3
0,25 60
0,2
0,15 40

0,1
20
0,05
0 0
0 0,5 1
Fig. 5. Propeller geometry designed by Larrabee method

2.3 Aerodynamic of wing with DEP

Combination of lifting line theory and Blade element theory is used to estimated
propeller wing interaction. This methodology was designed and validated [5]. Development
of slipstream propeller velocity is assumed in this method. Classic lifting line theory is
adjusted to using an external two dimensional airfoil characteristics. It enables to estimate
maximum lift coefficient and total aerodynamic drag (induced, pressure and viscous part).
After that, a CFD calculation was done to investigate local characteristics, that you can see
in the following figure.

6
MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

Fig.6. Distributed propulsion on scaled wing geometry – front view – velocity section behind wing

Fig.7. Lift coefficient for different wing geometry a regime

Three different lift coefficients are depicted in previous characteristic. The solid line is lift
generated by original wing. Approximately half lift is provided by wing with half area
(green line) related to original wing. Finally, half area wing with designed distributed
system (red line) provides roughly same lift like original entire wing. This can be
considered as proof of concept.

3 Conclusion
In this paper the design procedure of distributed electrical propulsion system is
presented. Plain airfoil is considered in this work. Design of DEP with high lift devices will
be solved in the future.
The integral characteristics of whole aircraft, original wing, half sized wing and half
sized wing with applied distributed propulsion were obtained by CFD calculations in this
study. Low-fidelity method was developed for fast preliminary design studies including
studies of distributed propulsions. From this low-fidelity method the scale limit was
derived.
Aerodynamic application of scaled wing can bring up to 38% save of fuel in cruise
regime with predefined flight mission. The saved mass of fuel is mentioned to be used for

7
MATEC Web of Conferences 304, 03009 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201930403009
EASN 2019

DEP  system  and  increasing  of  payload.  This  method  doesn’t  account  increase  of  mass for
the  wing  due  to  installation  of  nacelles  and  also  doesn’t  account  increase of its drag. These
constrains can be considered to be focused in future work. Increasing of drag can be solved
for first approach by adding constant value of drag.

Acknowledgement
Authors acknowledge support from the EU Operational Programme Research,
Development and Education, and from the Center of Advanced Aerospace Technology
(CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000826), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech
Technical University in Prague.

References
1. Kim, H. D., Perry, A. T., and Ansell, P. J. (2018). A Review of Distributed Electric
Propulsion Concepts for Air Vehicle Technology. 2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft
Technologies Symposium. doi:10.2514/6.2018-4998
2. Viken, J. K., Viken, S., Deere, K. A., and Carter, M. (2017). Design of the Cruise and
Flap Airfoil for the X-57 Maxwell Distributed Electric Propulsion Aircraft. 35th AIAA
Applied Aerodynamics Conference. doi:10.2514/6.2017-3922
3. Moore,  K.  R.,  and  Ning,  A.,  “Distributed  Electric  Propulsion  Effects  on  Traditional  
Aircraft  Through  Multidisciplinary  Optimization,”  AIAA  Structures,  Structural  
Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Kissimmee, FL, Jan. 2018. doi:10.2514/6.2018-
1652
4. Gnadt, A., Isaacs, S., Price, R., Dethy, M., and Chappelle, C. (2019). Hybrid Turbo-
Electric STOL Aircraft for Urban Air Mobility. AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum.
doi:10.2514/6.2019-0531
5. Pavel, H., Jan, K., and Nikola,  Ž.  (2018).  Wing  and  propeller  aerodynamic  interaction  
through nonlinear lifting line theory and blade element momentum theory. MATEC
Web of Conferences, 233, 00027. doi:10.1051/matecconf/201823300027
6. EMRAX electrical engine, 2018, https://emrax.com/products/emrax-208/
7. Betz, A., Schraubenpropeller mit Geringstem Energieverlust, Göttinger Nachrichten,
Gottingen, 1919, pp. 193–217.
8. Goldstein, S., On the Vortex Theory of Screw Propellers, Proc. of the Royal Society
(A) 123, 440, 1929.
9. Larrabee, E. E., Practical Design of Minimum Induced Loss Propellers, Business
Aircraft Meeting and Exposition, Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, PA,
April 1979, Paper 790595.