The assessment and digitalization of forthcoming propulsion technologies (ADAPT) project aims to evaluate future propulsion technologies. The focus is on hydrogen combustion in particular. For this purpose, propulsion concepts for regional, short-haul and long-haul routes will be predesigned and evaluated in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary process. For the short-haul use case (A320 aircraft class), technology bricks and indeterminacies for detailed analysis will be identified and prioritized. For the development of the process chains, a collaborative process architecture will be established that covers all engine pre-design procedures as well as a growing number of high-fidelity methods (co-developed by BT-BGF). Key geometric properties of the engine system are to be described using a central parametric data model.
At the Center for Lightweight Production Technology in Augsburg, the data management system shepard is used as data framework for the seamless digital representation of the processes. Furthermore, methods for semantic linking of data are being evaluated and a concept for versioning data records in shepard is being developed.
Optimisation of combustion chamber and turbine design for hydrogen applications
While changing propellant to hydrogen, a number of modifications in combustor design and turbine design are to be expected, which are being investigated in the ADAPT project. Preliminary design tools are beneficial for the initial validation of a combustor design. Through fast and less expensive software processes compared to detailed CFD and FEM analyses, more combustor designs can be investigated and validated in a shorter time. The tools CoMDAT (Combustor pre-Design and Thermal Analysis Tool, AT-BRK) and CoSMA (Combustor Strength and Modal Analysis, BT-KVS) have been developed and successfully applied for the predesign of combustors in previous DLR projects (PERFECT, PEGASUS, EVITA).
Within the ADAPT project, static thermo-mechanical and lifetime analyses of the combustor are performed with the CoSMA tool. A combustor for hydrogen combustion will be designed and subsequently optimized in a detailed modeling study.
Furthermore, the turbine stages are influenced by the effects of hydrogen combustion. Especially the first stages are exposed to extreme temperature loadings that necessitate a complex active cooling system. The thermal resistance is further increased by means of modern thermal barrier coatings (TBC) with sub-millimeter thickness. This is where coupled optimizations of main flow, cooling air flow, main structure, and coating is necessary in order to maximize efficiency. The department Component Design and Manufacturing Technologies contributes to the development of the structural side of this simulated fluid-structure-interaction (FSI). Many of the tools and sub-processes developed herein are also applicable to the propulsor and compressor stages.
Applicability of CMCs for hydrogen-powered propulsion components
In parallel to this work, the applicability of CMCs (Ceramic Matrix Composites) under LH2 conditioning for specific engine components will be evaluated from literature sources and results of the 3D-CeraTurb project. The choice of CMCs such as non-oxide SiC/SiC and oxide CMCs is justified by their properties, which make them particularly interesting for high temperature applications.
