9th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference (ATIO) <br>and<br>Air

21 - 23 September 2009, Hilton Head, South Carolina

AIAA 2009-7050

Integrated analysis and design environment

for a climate compatible air transport system
Alexander Koch1, Bjrn Nagel2 and Volker Gollnick3
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Air Transport Concepts and Technology Assessment
Hamburg, Germany
Katrin Dahlmann 4, Volker Grewe 5, Bernd Krcher6 and Ulrich Schumann7,
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

Aviation affects the Earths atmosphere and radiative balance through the emission of
greenhouse gases, greenhouse gas precursors, aerosols, contrails and induced cirrus
cloudiness. The resulting climate impact is a response of the complex interactions between
the amount and type of emitted constituents, their geographical position, altitude and time of
emission as well as the actual weather and climate situation. In 2005 aviation accounted for
3.5 % of the global anthropogenic radiative forcing (excluding the impact of contrail cirrus
clouds). As the global air traffic is predicted to grow approx. 5% per year, the development
of a climate compatible air transport system is of increasing importance for society and
science. To achieve this goal, different technological and operational options can be applied
to reduce the climate impact by air travel. The range of possibilities is wide, including new
propulsion concepts such as open rotors or intercooler recuperative engine cycles, improved
combustion chambers for low NOX and soot, novel aircraft configurations such as Blended
Wing Bodies, innovative subsystem architectures for minimal engine cycle disturbance
through secondary power off take and operational procedures such as multi-step operations
and changed cruise altitudes for contrail avoidance. In order to provide a solid basis for
decision and policy makers, the remaining uncertainties in climate modeling have to be
reduced and the different options and their interrelations have to be assessed in a reliable
way. To catch all relevant effects of the coupled disciplines, sophisticated numerical models
for climate response, mission calculation, propulsion, aircraft subsystems and overall
aircraft design are combined to an integrated simulation and assessment chain. In addition,
further efforts are made to reduce remaining uncertainties in modeling emissions and their
corresponding climate impact. This complex and multidisciplinary task further requires the
contribution of experts from the included areas to ensure a secure evaluation of the obtained
results. Here we present such an integrated approach as it is applied within the DLR project
Climate compatible Air Transport System (CATS).

Research Engineer, Alexander.Koch@dlr.de, Blohmstrasse 18, 21079 Hamburg, Germany

Head of Department, Bjoern.Nagel@dlr.de, Blohmstrasse 18, 21079 Hamburg, Germany
3
Head of Institute, Volker.Gollnick@dlr.de, Blohmstrasse 18, 21079 Hamburg, Germany
4
Scientist, Katrin.Dahlmann@dlr.de, Mnchner Strae 20, 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling, Germany
5
Senior scientist, Volker.Grewe@dlr.de, Mnchner Strae 20, 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling, Germany
6
Senior scientist, Bernd.Kaercher@dlr.de, Mnchner Strae 20, 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling, Germany
7
Head of Institute, Ulrich.Schumann@dlr.de, Mnchner Strae 20, 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling, Germany
2

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Copyright 2009 by Deutsches Zentrum fr Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR). Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission.

I. Introduction

ver the last decades commercial aviation has experienced a steady growth and accompanied with it,
continuous improvements in safety, reliability and transport efficiency. Since the entry into service of the
first commercial jet airliners in the 1950s a steady increase in fuel efficiency has been achieved, leading to a
reduction of approx. 70% in fuel consumption per flown revenue passenger kilometer (RPK).
In parallel to these technological achievements and with the growing demand of commercial air transport, the
total amount of flown passenger kilometers and thus the amount of emitted carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides
(NOx) and other compounds increased considerably. Aviation accounted in 2005 for 3.5 % of the global
anthropogenic radiative forcing (RF) (55 mW/m), excluding the impact of induced cirrus cloudiness [Lee et al.,
2009]. As forecasts predict an ongoing growth in RPK of approx. 5% [Airbus, Boeing, 2007] per year till 2026,
aviations share in climate change will become even more important then nowadays.

Figure 1. Radiative forcing components from global aviation as evaluated from preindustrial times until
2005. Bars represent updated best estimates or an estimate in the case of aviation-induced cloudiness as listed
in Table 2. IPCC AR4 values are indicated by the white lines in the bars as reported by Forster et al. (2007a).
The induced cloudiness estimate includes linear contrails. [Source Lee et al., 2009]
As outlined by the Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe (ACARE), a social and climate
compatible air transportation system (ATS) is required for a sustainable development of commercial aviation. To
enhance such a development, ACARE established goals for the year 2020. Among others, these goals set a 50%
reduction in emitted CO2 and 80% in emitted NOX per RPK for a new aircraft in 2020 compared to a new aircraft of
the year 2000. We believe that any effort to mitigate the climate impact should go beyond the limitation of
emissions, rather aiming at a limitation of the mean global temperature rise. During the G8 summit in LAquila,
Italy in July 2009, the participating leaders of G8 states and upcoming developing countries declared their common
goal to limit the global temperature change to 2 degree Celsius with respect to pre-industrial times. It is assumed,
that these challenging goals can only be achieved by the complementary exploitation of innovative technologies and
operational procedures. This is especially true for the aviation sector, where the curve of technology improvement
for conventional aircraft and procedures is already flattened due to the grown efficiency, allowing only relatively
small improvements.
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Thus for a climate neutral growth of the global air transport system, new technological and operational options
have to be introduced. The range of possibilities is wide, including new propulsion concepts such as open rotors or
intercooler recuperative engine cycles, improved combustion chambers for low NOX and soot, novel aircraft
configurations such as Blended Wing Bodies (BWB), innovative subsystem architectures for minimal engine cycle
disturbance through secondary power off take and operational procedures such as multi-step operations and changed
cruise altitudes for contrail avoidance.
In order to provide a solid basis for decision and policy makers, the remaining uncertainties in climate modelling
have to be reduced and the different options and their interrelations have to be assessed in a reliable way. In order to
catch all relevant effects of the coupled disciplines, sophisticated numerical models for climate response,
atmospheric conditions, mission calculation, propulsion, aircraft subsystems and overall aircraft design are
combined to an integrated simulation and evaluation chain. Further efforts are made to reduce remaining
uncertainties in modeling emissions and their corresponding climate impact. Clearly this complex and
multidisciplinary task also requires the contribution of disciplinary experts to ensure a reliable evaluation of the
obtained results.
Here we present such an integrated approach as it is applied within the DLR project Climate compatible Air
Transport System (CATS). All participating project partners are listed on page 17.

II. Aircraft emissions and climate impact

The climate impact of air traffic is a consequence of a variety of perturbations to the atmosphere. The chemical
compounds released along the flight path during the combustion of kerosene, include carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen
oxides (NOX for NO2 and NO), sulfur oxides (SOX) and water vapor (H2O) and further small amounts of
hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and soot (Csoot). By releasing those substances in the upper troposphere
and lower stratosphere, they trigger complex chemical reactions with the background atmosphere. This leads to a
change in the atmospheric radiation balance, to which the Earths atmosphere reacts with a corresponding
temperature change leading to a new state of equilibrium. Figure 2 shows schematically how aircraft emissions
trigger climate change.

Figure 2. Aircraft emissions, their interaction with the atmosphere and resulting climate impact
[Source Lee et al., 2009]
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Carbon dioxide and water vapor are important greenhouse gases that impact directly the atmosphere through
absorption and re-emission of the outgoing infrared radiation. As CO2 is fairly inert, the atmosphere needs long time
to remove emitted CO2 through natural wash-out processes, resulting in an average lifetime of 50-200 years. Due to
this long lifetime and is resulting equal dispersion in the atmosphere, the locus of CO2 emission is irrelevant for the
global warming effect.
NOx emissions from air traffic have an impact on ozone (increase) and methane (decrease), both being important
greenhouse gases. CH4 and O3 affects the earth climate by the same principle as CO2 through absorption and
remission of outgoing infrared radiation, leading to a temperature rise in the troposphere. The lifetime of CH4 is
about 10 years, which makes it well mixed over the atmosphere, whereas O3 is a chemically reactive gas, leading to
comparably short lifetimes between days and weeks in the troposphere. The impact of NOx emissions and its impact
on O3 is thus sensitive to the emission region and altitude, with larger impacts on ozone at lower latitudes but also
higher altitudes [Grewe and Stenke, 2008]. As aviation reduces the methane concentration in the atmosphere, the
aviation radiative forcing is negative, counteracting partially the positive radiative forcing (RF) from Ozone
production.
The emission of aerosols has a direct climate impact through the reflection of incoming radiation by sulfates,
leading to a negative RF, but also through absorption of incoming radiation by soot particles and other particle
matter, which results in a positive RF. It is further assumed that emitted aerosols have also an indirect climate
impact by serving as condensation nuclei and enhancing the formation of condensation trails (contrails).
Contrails are visible line clouds, consisting of ice particles that form in the exhaust plume of aircraft if the
ambient air is cold enough. A contrail will form, if the mixture of exhaust gas and ambient air transiently reaches
saturation with respect to liquid water during the plume expansion. Whether this condition will be reached or not is
described by the Schmidt-Appleman criterion. Supposing that the mixing process of exhaust gas and ambient air in
the plume expansion is isobaric, the mixing phase trajectory G [Pa/K] in the phase diagram for water vapour (as
displayed in Figure 3) is given by the following equation:

G=

EI H 2O p C p

Q (1 )

Where EIH2O [kgH2O/kgfuel] is the mission index of water vapour, cp [J/kgK] is the isobaric heat capacity of air, p
[pa] is ambient air pressure, is the ratio of molar masses of water vapour and dry air, Q [MJ/kg] chemical heat
content of the fuel and the overall propulsion efficiency. The slope of G is characteristic for a specific combination
of aircraft-engine-fuel and surrounding atmospheric condition [Gierens et al., 2008].
As shown in Figure 3, contrails form and persist when the isobaric mixing line ends in an ice supersaturated
state, otherwise they dissolve quickly. Hence contrails are sensitive to the surrounding weather situation.
Persisting contrails can grow by the uptake of ambient water vapor until the ice crystals fall due to their
increasing weight into lower and warmer altitudes where they evaporate as soon as they enter an unsaturated state.
Through wind shear contrails can further transform into contrail-cirrus clouds, which look natural but would not
exist without prior formation of contrails.
As shown in Figure 1, the climate impact of contrails and induced contrail cirrus cloudiness could be of
substantial magnitude if the current assumptions about their radiative forcing are found to be adequate. Still, there
are large uncertainties that need to be reduced prior final assessment.

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Figure 3. Sketch of the Schmidt-Applemann criterion. The two solid curves represent the saturation with
respect to liquid water (upper curve) and ice (lower curve) respectively. The phase trajectory of the mixture
between exhaust gases and ambient air is displayed as dashed curve. The tangent (dotted line) to the water
saturation curve marks the warmest temperatures for which contrail formation is possible.
[Source Gierens et al., 2008]
Figure 1 also shows that the radiative forcing by air traffic is caused to a large extent by non-CO2 effects. Hence,
it is insufficient to limit the analysis of climate impact of air traffic to CO2 emissions. Any technology assessment
with respect to climate reduction potential, which focuses on CO2 only, is likely to point into the wrong direction.
Moreover we believe that any assessment should be performed in a most comprehensive way, including the radiative
forcing of all relevant emitted compounds and expressing the climate impact in a reasonable climate metric. Studies
have shown that metrics like global warming potentials or radiative forcing index are misleading and not appropriate
for our purpose [Forster et al., 2006]. Sausen and Schumann (2005) (linear response model) and Grewe and Stenke
(2008) (AirClim model) presented a way how to estimate the climate impact in terms of changes in the near-surface
air temperature.
The assessment of the aviation related climate impact still holds many uncertainties. Any effort in reducing the
climate impact has to take into account these uncertainties. Grewe et al. (2007) has shown that although
uncertainties are large, the approach is applicable to assess technologies with a reduced climate impact.
A detailed description about how climate response models and associated uncertainties are included in the
present approach to estimate the climate impact of aviation is given in a companion paper by Dahlmann et al.
(2009).

III.

Options for climate impact mitigation

A fine review of the technological and operational options to mitigate climate impact of air traffic has been given
by Green (2009). Gmelin (2008) provided an excellent summary about future engine technologies that might help to
reduce the climate impact. A good review about the various options for contrail avoidance was provided by Gierens
et al. (2008). The following chapter only gives a short overview about the main performance drivers of aircraft and
engine design and their working principles in order to outline the different technological and operational
improvements that might help to reduce the climate impact.
Among the operational aspects which may lead to mitigation in climate impact, promising options are the
reduction of cruise flight altitude and design range.
A reduction of cruise altitude will reduce the impact of NOX, which was found to have a maximum impact at
nowadays cruise altitudes of 35kft [Egelhofer et al., 2007]. In addition it could help in avoiding contrails. As
described above, contrails and induced cirrus cloudiness presently are assumed to have a large climate impact and as
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Fichter et al. (2005) showed, there is a clear altitude dependence of contrail formation. Gierens et al. (2008)
concluded that a flexible reduction of cruise altitude, taking into account actual weather forecast, would be the most
reasonable measure. One the other side, a reduction of cruise altitude without reduced cruise Mach number will
result in increased drag and thus fuel consumption. This will lead to an increased impact through CO2, counteracting
the benefits gained by contrail avoidance and reduction of NOX impact.
With the combination of reduced cruise speed and altitude, nowadays aircraft would be operated in off-design
conditions, loosing the full potential benefit of improvement through the relative higher fuel consumption when
compared to an aircraft that is designed for the new cruise conditions. Thus a redesign of the aircraft and propulsion
concept is required to obtain full benefit. The new design point opens a variety of options, including high aspect
ratio wings with reduced wing sweep and/or increased wing thickness, open rotor concepts, etc.
A further promising operational option is to reduce the design range of long-haul aircraft, splitting the entire
mission range in various shorter legs and introducing multi step missions or aerial refueling operations on long haul
flights.
This is due to the strong influence that range has on the aircraft empty weight and required trip fuel. For a given
payload, cruise speed and altitude, the required trip fuel increases non-linearly with the desired design range. An
increased range requires extra fuel, whereas the increased fuel weight leads to an increased empty weight due to
structural reasons. The increased empty weight and extra fuel results in increased take off weight. This in turn will
require even extra fuel to carry the increased take-off weight over the given design range, and so on. It can be seen,
that transporting a given payload over a long range is not very fuel efficient. Green (2009) showed that the most fuel
efficient design range is around 4000 km. Instead nowadays long-haul aircraft are often designed for far greater
ranges, offering the airlines more operational flexibility but accepting the loss in performance. Changing the design
philosophy of aircraft towards more optimal payload fuel efficiencies, would help to decrease fuel consumption and
thus the climate impact.
The technological options for improvement include the airframe, the engine and the aircraft subsystems. There
are some fundamental relationships in aircraft and engine design describing the boundaries for improvement. These
are the Breguet range equation, the second law of thermodynamics, the Lanchester-Prandtl wing theory and the laws
governing the laminar/turbulent boundary layer transition [Green, 2009].
On the side of the airframe, the options to improve the fuel efficiency and thus the climate impact are given by
the Breguet range equation as stated below, expressing the required trip fuel (mfuel) for a given range and a set of
important aircraft and engine performance parameters:

m fuel

L / DMaa

= mICA 1 e SFC g

The expression is valid for climb cruise with constant lift coefficient and includes as variables the range (R), the
aerodynamic efficiency expressed as lift to drag ratio (L/D), implicitly the aircraft empty weight via the initial
cruise weight (mICA), the specific fuel consumption (SFC) and the cruise speed - expressed as product of Mach
number (Ma) and speed of sound (a).
For a given range, payload and cruise speed, the options on the side of the overall configuration and airframe are
to reduce the empty weight and increase the aerodynamic efficiency.
Reduced empty weight without drastic change of the aircraft configuration can be achieved through new material
and production technologies, e.g. the use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics as being done on the new Airbus
A350XWB or Boeing 787. Weight reduction can be modeled in aircraft design via weight technology factors which
are derived from prior high fidelity physics based computations or from expert knowledge.
Increased aerodynamic efficiency (L/D) for constant lift (CL) can be obtained through a reduction of lift induced
drag (CDi) and reduced zero-lift drag (CD0):

CD = CD 0 + CDi

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The zero-lift drag is composed of friction drag, form drag and interference drag. Options to reduce the zero-lift
drag (CD0) of the configuration are the reduction of wetted area and/or extending the laminar boundary layer over
larger profile depths, both reducing the friction drag as the following expression shows:

CD , Fr =

1
S ref

(C

S wet )

where

C f = f (Re)

Where Sref is the reference area and Swet the wetted area. The friction coefficient Cf is mainly depending on the
type of boundary layer (either laminar or turbulent) which itself is a function of the Reynolds number.
Measures to extend the laminar boundary layer over the wing, range from natural laminar flow control by profile
design to full laminar flow control by boundary layer suction. All techniques to maintain the laminar boundary layer
suffer under drawbacks as surface pollution in operation (e.g. little particles or insects), technical failure risk and
additional systems weight when using active devices. Improved zero-lift drag can be modeled via component drag
technology factors which are derived from expert knowledge.
A reduction in friction drag through reduced wetted area can be achieved by novel aircraft configurations such as
Blended Wing Bodies (BWB) or Flying Wings. Compared to a conventional aircraft the BWB concept offers a
better ratio of wetted surface to volume (given by the payload to be transported), thus decreasing the wetted area and
related friction drag [Torenbeek, 2000]. Supposing that the remaining technological challenges, such as the
structural concept, ride quality, cabin layout and emergency evacuation can be solved in an acceptable way, the
BWB concept seems a very promising option to improve the payload-fuel efficiency. Still there is large effort
required to model all relevant interdependencies in adequate way before any reliable assessment with respect to the
performance of such concept can be done. Therefore high fidelity codes for structural and aerodynamic design have
to be coupled with stability and handling quality models.
Reduction of induced drag (CDi) for const. lift (CL) can be achieved through the increase of aspect ratio () and
improved lift distribution (expressed through the Oswald efficiency factor e):

CDi = k CL2 =

CL2
e

As the lift distribution defines the aerodynamics loads on the wing, it is commonly chosen as a compromise
between aerodynamic and structural wing design. Increasing the aspect ratio will on one side help to reduce the
vortex drag but on the other side increase the structural wing weight due to higher bending moments at the wing
root. This drawback could be countered by increased wing thickness, which again is coupled to the Mach number
due to its effect on profile and wave drag. An increase in aspect ratio is thus directly related to operational aspects as
cruise Mach number and would become interesting for the fly lower, fly slower case. Modeling the structural
impact of high aspect ratio wings requires physic based methods, e.g. idealizing the wing as beam model, or even
higher fidelity codes as finite element methods for higher accuracy. The aerodynamic loads can be reliably
determined with vortex-lattice methods.
Looking at the engine, the main options to improve the climate impact are to reduce the overall fuel burn through
increased propulsive efficiency (prop) and increased thermal efficiency (therm) and/or to reduce the production rate
of NOX. Propulsive and thermal efficiency together with the engine transmission efficiency (trans), describe the
overall propulsion efficiency (o):

o = prop therm trans

The transmission efficiency depends mainly on the component efficiencies of fan, compressor, combustor and
turbine. The propulsive efficiency is expressed by the following term:

prop =

2
V
2+
V

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Where V is the flight speed and V is the difference between flight speed and exhaust speed. prop hence
increases for decreasing V. The thrust is given by the product of mass flow of air through the engine (mainly
through the fan) and V:

F = m V

Maximizing prop for a given thrust thus requires increased mass flow when decreasing V. This can be achieved
by an engine with high bypass ratio (BPR) and slower turning fan. But as the fan is driven by the low pressure
turbine (LPT) in direct mechanical connection, the fan rotation speed impacts the overall engine cycle through the
LPT. This issue can be countered by the integration of an adequate gear between LPT shaft and fan, downsizing the
fan rotation speed. Despite the drawback of increased engine weight due to the additional fan gear, such concepts
are currently investigated as next engine generation due to their improved propulsive efficiency.
High BPR engines further increase the nacelle weight and drag, possibly offsetting their benefit and leading to
increased fuel burn. Open rotors concepts (either single or contra-rotating) offer significantly higher propulsive
efficiency without drag and weight penalties from a larger nacelle. Instead, these concepts suffer under increased
noise. All concepts with increased BPR will show an optimal BPR with respect to fuel burn which is based on the
best compromise of gained propulsive efficiency and performance losses due to additional weight and drag. To
reliably asses the different physical impacts of such new concepts, sophisticated engine models must be applied.
The thermal efficiency (therm) describes the ratio of the gas turbine work output to the energy input from burning
fuel. Increasing the turbine entry temperature (TET) and the overall engine pressure ratio (OPR) leads to increased
thermal efficiency and thus reduced fuel burn with corresponding CO2 and H2O emission.
The formation of CO, HC and soot is the result of incomplete combustion processes, while NOX is considered a
byproduct that forms independent from the completeness of combustion. NOX, CO, HC and soot mostly depend on
the equivalence ratio of the fuel-air mixture which directly defines the flame temperature. The equivalence ratio is
used to indicate whether combustion is lean, rich or stoichiometric. It is defined as fuel-air-ratio of the mixture
relative to the fuel-air-ratio for stoichiometric combustion.
There are three mechanisms of NO formation, depending on particular conditions of temperature, concentration,
residence time and fuel type, namely: thermal-NO, prompt-NO and fuel-NO formation. For aero-engines the most
important mechanism is thermal-NO. During this process, part of the nitrogen (N2) contained in the air is oxidized
by oxygen radicals (O), which are formed by dissociation by oxygen molecules (O2) at high temperatures. Hence the
formation rate of NOX depends strongly on the flame temperature and further on the residence time. The maximum
flame temperature is given at stoichiometric combustion with an equivalence ratio equal 1. Around this point, with
equivalence ratios between approx. 0.5 and 1.5 the NOX formation rate is at maximum.
Lean fuel-air mixtures (occurring at low throttle settings) with equivalence ratios smaller then approx. 0.5 favors
the formation of CO and HC, while soot formation is rising for rich fuel-air mixtures with equivalence ratios bigger
then approx. 1.5. Contrary to CO and HC, the formation rate of soot is more governed by physical processes of fuel
atomization and fuel-air-mixing than by chemical kinetics [Lefebvre, 1998].
There is hence an optimization conflict between increased thermal efficiency with higher TET and OPR for
corresponding low emission rates of CO2, CO, HC and on the other side low NOX that requires lower TET and OPR.
This aspect is addressed by novel combustor concepts for low NOX formation rate that are the lean premixed pre
vaporized (LPP) combustor, the staged combustor type and the rich burn quick lean (RQL) combustor.
Whereas the LPP mixes and vaporizes the fuel-air mixture before the combustion starts with an equivalence ratio
smaller 1. The staged combustor is either based on fuel staging or air staging. The fuel staging combustor consists at
least of two separate combustions zones, namely the pilot stage and main stage, whereas the pilot stage burns rich
and the main stage burns lean. Depending on the throttle setting the main stage is used or not used for combustion.
The air staging combustor controls the amount of air entering the combustor. The RQL combustor burns in the
primary zone with rich fuel-air mixture, in the secondary zone with lean mixture. To avoid stoichiometric
combustion in the transition zone, air is rapidly added after the primary zone. In general sense, lean combustions
introduce problems with respect to amount of air of cooling of the combustor walls, increased complexity of the
engine control system and the risk of flame out and reignition. Modeling of novel combustor concepts for NOX
and/or soot reduction with acceptable thermal efficiency requires extremely complex simulations of flow physics
and reaction kinetics in the combustor (i).
All discussed measures to increase the propulsive und thermal efficiency will lead to an increased overall
propulsion efficiency (o), which is beneficial for the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. As shown above, o
efficiency directly influences the formation of contrails as expressed in the Schmidt-Appleman theory. Hence,
increasing o will lead to increased contrail formation which if their impact is as high as assumed can offset the
benefit of reduced fuel consumption.
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Additional to the technological options on side of the airframe and engine, there is also potential for
improvement in the aircraft subsystems. Beside weight reduction through more efficient subsystem architectures and
reduced component weights, there is a potential benefit in reducing the influence of the subsystems on the engine
cycle caused by secondary power off-take. To supply the various subsystems on board the aircraft with hydraulic,
pneumatic and electric energy, generators and compressors need to be powered. Therefore secondary power is
extracted in form of bleed air and shaft power, both off-takes influencing the engine cycle. To counter the external
influence, the engine control system (FADEC) increases the fuel flow in order to keep a constant thrust.
Shaft power can either be extracted at the low pressure turbine (LPT) shaft and/or at the high pressure turbine
shaft (HPT), reducing their rotation speed.
Bleed air can be extracted before or after the high pressure compressor (HPC), impacting the relative enthalpy of
the extracted mass flow. Contrary to shaft power off-takes, the extraction of bleed air also removes some of the
working medium of the engine cycle. Especially when extracting bleed air with high relative enthalpy after the HPC,
additional work has to be performed to compress air as replacement of the removed working medium. This
additional work load leads to an increased fuel flow. Beside the impact on fuel flow, secondary power off-take also
influences the formation of NOX, CO, HC and soot emissions through the throttle setting and corresponding
equivalence ratio. Dollmayer (2005) assessed the impact of secondary power off-take on mission fuel for different
aircraft, engine and systems parameters in his PhD thesis. For a conventional system architecture with extraction of
120 kW at the HPT shaft and 1.2 kg/s bleed air with a relative enthalpy of 0.3, the delta in mission fuel resulted
average 4%.
Currently under discussion are system architectures that reduce or avoid the extraction of bleed air, leading to a
so called more electric aircraft or all electric aircraft. One actual concept under investigation is the bleedless air
condition system. Dollmayer concluded that by replacing the conventional system through the bleedless design, the
mission fuel could be reduced by 1.4% on the design mission. Due to the reduced take-off weight, the wing size
could also be reduced, improving the benefit to 2.3% in mission fuel.
To reliably asses the impact of novel system concepts on the fuel consumption and emission index, a
sophisticated numerical aircraft subsystem model which describes the existing interdependencies between the
various subsystem components needs to be coupled to an aircraft design and engine model as proposed by Koeppen
(2005).

IV. Integrated approach for a climate compatible air transport system

As described in chapter II, the climate impact due to aviation is a response of the complex interactions between
the amount and type of emitted pollutants, their geographical position and altitude of emission as well as the actual
weather and climate situation. Chapter III provided just a short summary about the various options that might lead to
a reduction of climate impact caused by air traffic; but it highlighted the existing interdependencies between all
disciplines, showing that the optimization of single aspects without taking all other influences into account cannot
lead to a reliable evaluation. The required level of fidelity of the models to assess climate impact of new
technologies in a comprehensive way depends on the chosen focus and frame of technology, ranging from statistical
methods for the evaluation of relatively known aspects to high fidelity physics based codes that are required when
assessing novel technologies and configurations.
The assessment of climate impact and mitigation options hence requires a comprehensive multilevel simulation
chain, including a detailed climate response model combined with sophisticated models for atmospheric conditions,
propulsion and aircraft design, aircraft subsystems and mission calculation. Choosing the adequate fidelity level for
each aspect under consideration demands the integration of expert knowledge as well as the evaluation of obtained
results afterwards.
The following chapter outlines the current approach as it is applied in the DLR research project Climate
compatible Air Transport System (CATS).

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A. Framework
The technical realization of the assessment process follows the general DLR-approach for distributed simulations
as shown in Figure 4. The commercial design and analysis framework ModelCenter, based on a client/server
architecture, is used to link all contributing models to an integrated simulation chain.

Figure 4. Server/Client Architecture for distributed simulation as it is applied in DLR

As central data interface for the resulting tool chain, the DLR standardized Common Parametric Aircraft
Configuration Standard (CPACS) is used, containing not only the parametric aircraft description, but also relevant
parameters of the aircraft system architecture, the engine, the mission, airports and in a future version also fleet
information. File wrappers translate the tool specific data format to the DLR standard CPACS.
To enhance the capabilities of distributed simulations in the DLR with ModelCenter, various software
components that simplify the integration of new tools via CPACS and the visualization of results were developed(vii).
B. Numerical models
To determine the climate impact of aviation, the climate response model AirClim(i) is used. The tool comprises a
linearization of atmospheric processes from the emission to radiative forcing, resulting in an estimate in near surface
temperature change, which is presumed to be a reasonable indicator for climate change. AirClim is designed to be
applicable to aircraft technology, including the climate agents CO2, H2O, CH4 and O3 (latter two resulting from
NOX-emissions) and contrails. The climate response model combines a number of previous calculated atmospheric
data with aircraft emission data to obtain the temporal evolution of atmospheric concentration changes, radiative
forcing and temperature changes. These previous calculated data are derived from 25 steady-state simulations for the
year 2050 with the DLR climate-chemistry model E39/C(i), prescribing normalised emissions of nitrogen oxides and
water vapour at various atmospheric regions. A more detailed description about the functionality of AirClim is given
by Grewe et al. (2008).
To provide information about the atmospheric conditions along the flight path a specific model was developed.
Atmos(i) provides atmospheric data such as temperature, pressure and relative humidity for a given set of
coordinates. A future version shall also provide wind speed/direction for a chosen background scenario.
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For the calculation of emitted pollutants, the engine performance database TWdat(iii) is used, providing a fast way
of assessing engine technologies. The database of TWdat is created with the engine cycle modeling tool Varcycle(iii)
[Deidewig, 1998]. In addition to the detailed thermodynamic analysis of various engine concepts, Varcycle is
capable of predicting gaseous emissions (i.e. CO2, NOX, HC, SO2 and soot) of aero engines by the use of emission
correlation methods. In a future version, the relative humidity is taken into account for a better estimation of NOX, as
well as the impact of secondary power off takes. The performance characteristics of several existing aero engines are
already included in TWdat, if required novel engine concepts can be modeled with higher fidelity tools by the
responsible experts and added to the database.
The multi-disciplinary aircraft design tool Preliminary Aircraft Design and Optimization(viii) (PrADO) comprises
physical models with semi-empirical extensions for aircraft and component geometry, aerodynamics, flight mission
simulations, structural analysis, weight prediction, performance and trim calculations. The independent variables are
numerous design requirements defined by the user (such as payload, range, and maximum take-off length, etc.) and
initial geometry input (cabin layout, wing span, aspect ratio, etc). The dependent design variables are response
quantities that result from different design modules (e.g. the actual wing span from geometry calculations or
aerodynamic coefficients from aerodynamic analyses). The level of fidelity varies from statistical methods, for an
initial estimation of the overall configuration, to physics based methods as vortex-lattice and beam model for more
precise calculation of aerodynamic coefficients, loads and structural layout of the wing. Starting with an initial
parametric definition of the aircraft, the sequential design process covers all major aspects that are relevant to
simulate a complete design process of an aircraft and to calculate its properties and performance. [Heinze et al.,
1994]
The design process iterates until convergence of dependent variables is achieved. The result of the process is a
detailed aircraft description as shown in Figure 5, providing information about geometry and cabin layout, airframe
structural design, mass breakdown, aerodynamics and performance tables.

Figure 5. Detailed Aircraft Design with PrADO

A numeric model for the prediction of the energy demand (bleed air and shaft power drain) of a given aircraft
system architecture is integrated in the simulation chain. The various subsystems are modeled via functional
relationships between the major system components. The model uses general geometrical information and data
concerning the system architecture and technology level as input and provides a system mass breakdown and
secondary power demand as output.
A modified version of TrafficSim(v) is used to calculate the 3D trajectories for each route in the input file.
The modified version uses the calculated aerodynamic and engine performance tables together with a given set
of mission waypoints and constraints. A detailed description of the trajectory and distribution of pollutants is
provided as result.
The chain further comprises numeric models for cosmic radiation exposure(vi)and life cycle cost estimation(ii).
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C. Simulation and assessment process

As shown in Figure 6, the outlined simulation process is split into three phases that are executed consecutively
and iteratively till convergence is reached.
The initial CPACS file contains all relevant information about the design task (aircraft design requirements and
constraints) and the different routes to be assessed in phase 2.
In a first simulation loop, the aircraft is sized for the given design task with PrADO(viii) coupled to TWdat(iii) and
the systems module. Using the required static thrust calculated by PrADO for the resulting configuration, the engine
is sized with TWdat(iii) in consecution. The system module computes the subsystems weight with the provided
aircraft data and given information about the systems architecture. To account the correct engine and subsystems
weight calculated by TWdat and the systems module respectively, the corresponding scaling factors in PrADO are
adjusted. This procedure is repeated till convergence is achieved. The aerodynamic and engine performance tables,
the geometry and weight breakdown for the converged solution are stored in the CPACS file as result of the
configuration design phase.
In the second phase, the module Atmos calculates the atmospheric conditions along the flight path with a chosen
vertical resolution for each given route in the CPACS file. Following, the aerodynamic and engine performance
tables serve together with a given set of waypoints and constraints (altitude and speed) as input for the mission
calculation module. For all routes of interest, the mission module calculates the 3D trajectory with distribution of
pollutants, mission fuel, mission time, etc. and stores this data in the CPACS file. In a future version, also the
influence of wind and relative humidity is taken into account.
In the third simulation phase, the computed trajectories and emission distributions are used as inputs for the
assessment of climate impact, cosmic radiation exposure and life cycle costs with the corresponding models.
After one simulation run (Phase 1-3), the resulting climate impact (expressed in near surface temperature
change), radiation dose and cost structure for the analyzed aircraft and routes is obtained.
The design space will be explored through parameter studies, leading to possible solutions for the trade between
climate impact vs. costs. The computed radiation dose is used to check on given health regulations for flying staff
and is handled in the simulation process as a constraint.
The resulting trade between climate impact vs. costs will be evaluated with a chosen weighting between costs
and climate impact in the context of a resulting cost deterioration for a given environmental performance
improvement.
With the outlined analysis and design process, the possible options to mitigate the climate impact of aircraft can
be analyzed in a comprehensive way. The presented approach offers the required level of fidelity for the assessment
of various technologies, ranging from novel aircraft subsystem, engine concepts to global configuration changes. For
unconventional configurations, high fidelity codes can be integrated on demand. Disciplinary experts are involved in
the problem setup process and during the evaluation of obtained results, ensuring a reliable interpretation of
solutions.
The outlined process is part of an overall activity to merge the existing disciplinary expertise and to enhance the
joint analysis and design capabilities within the DLR. Further efforts within the DLR to asses the various technical
options to reduce noise and pollutant emissions during landing and take-off cycles are presented in a companion
paper by Bertsch et al. (2009).

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Figure 6. Integrated multidisciplinary simulation process applied in CATS

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V. Test case
A first test case has been performed to ensure the functionality of the simulation chain. Therefore the climate
impact of a typical long range aircraft on a north Atlantic mission was exemplarily assessed. The aircraft
performance was modeled with PrADO for a conventional configuration as shown in Figure 5 with 305 passengers
in 3 class layout and 10 t additional payload, a design range of 7500 km, initial cruise altitude of 12 km and a cruise
mach number of 0.84. Further typical aircraft design and certification constraints have been considered. The engine
performance was modeled with TWDat to match a Pratt & Whitney PW9040 engine. The flight routing with
corresponding way points was modeled with TrafficSim based on real flight data for the route Frankfurt (FRA)-New
York Newark (EWR). Two contrail sensitive areas (K1 and K2) have been located along the route as shown in
Figure 7. The vertical flight profile was modeled from real flight data for the chosen route and aircraft type as shown
in Figure 8.
K1 was placed over ocean whereas K2 was placed over land, in order to consider the different climate impacts. It
was assumed that a contrail will form and contribute a radiative forcing if the aircraft flies through the sensitive
areas, whereas there is no climate impact if the contrail sensitive area is avoided. To assess the impact for various
vertical dimensions of such sensitive areas, the altitude changes for contrail avoidance ranged from +2500 ft to
-3500 ft with respect to the reference altitude, which was 37000 ft for K1 and 38000 ft for K2.
In order to consider, the uncertainties concerning the contribution of contrails to the radiative balance of the
Earth, the climate impact of contrails was computed with their assumed average impact and with their max impact.

Figure 7. FrankfurtNew York Newark route with

contrail sensitive areas (K1 and K2)

Figure 8. Vertical flight profile and altitude

variation for contrail avoidance along FRA - EWR.

Figure 9 shows the climate impact for each emitted compound and avoided contrail expressed in Pico Kelvin for
the analyzed single flight FRA-EWR. The resulting climate impact of all compounds and avoided contrail are
obtained by summing up all contributions for a specific altitude change as shown in
Figure 10. If the formation of a contrail is avoided due to the altitude change, its climate impact accounts with
negative dT (understood as benefit with respect to the reference). It can be observed that the impact of ozone
increases significantly with increasing altitude. For a required altitude change greater +2000 ft, the impact of ozone
counters the obtained benefit for the avoided contrail when assuming an average contrail impact. In this particular
case it is better to fly 2000 ft lower. If the max. impact of contrails is assumed, in any case it is beneficial to avoid
the formation of contrail.
On the other side, the computed direct operating cost (DOC) improved by 0.36 % for the altitude change of
+2000 ft and deteriorated by 4.18 % for the altitude change of -2000 ft with respect to the reference flight level. This
is a fine example of how climate and cost impact need to be balanced.
It has to be mentioned explicitly, that this test case only shows the functionality of the simulation chain. The
showed results depend strongly on the analyzed conditions and will vary for other aircraft types, flight routes and
vertical profiles. For a reliable assessment, the climate impact of a global network needs to be computed in order to
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identify technological and operational solutions that provide a benefit with respect to the mean global climate
impact.

Figure 9.
Climate impact for each emitted compound and avoided contrail (avg. and max radiative
impact) expressed in Pico Kelvin for one single flight (FRA-EWR). Note that the max impact contrail is
downscaled with factor 50 for reasons of better representation.

Figure 10. Summed climate impact for all emitted compounds and avoided contrail (avg. and max
radiative impact) expressed in Pico Kelvin for one single flight (FRA-EWR).

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VI. Conclusion and way forward

With the outlined analysis and design process, the possible options to mitigate the climate impact of aircraft can
be analyzed in a comprehensive way. The presented approach offers the required level of fidelity for the assessment
of various technologies, ranging from novel aircraft subsystem and engine concepts to global configuration changes.
For unconventional configurations, response surfaces derived from high fidelity codes can be integrated on demand.
Disciplinary experts are involved in the problem setup process and during the evaluation of obtained results,
ensuring a reliable interpretation of solutions.
The described test case showed how the climate impact of operational options, such as changed flight altitude for
contrail avoidance, can be assessed. The performance characteristics of the analyzed aircraft, the distribution of
pollutants and the resulting climate impact were computed by the outlined simulation chain comprising sophisticated
tools. Still, the test case only showed the climate impact of one single aircraft on one single route.
For a reliable assessment, the climate impact of a global network needs to be computed in order to identify
technological and operational solutions that provide a benefit with respect to the mean global climate impact.
The next steps towards a better understanding of how aviation impacts the Earth climate and the resulting
options for mitigation will be performed within the DLR project CATS.
First, the impact of alternative mission profiles will be simulated and evaluated for a representative of todays
long range aircraft on a global set of routes. Consecutively, the aircraft performance loss through off-design
operation will be minimized by optimizing the configuration for an alternative mission profile that provides a
climate impact improvement in a global mean.
Further, different options to reduce the climate impact of air traffic will be assessed. On the operational side, this
includes multi step operations and lower cruise altitude with reduced cruise speed with corresponding design
aircraft. On the technological side, various options can be assessed, for example improved engine and combustion
technologies which modify the amount and spectrum of the emitted constituents. Novel aircraft system architectures
that are tailored to reduce the engine performance loss through bleed air and power shaft drain. Additional benefit
can be obtained by increasing the overall aircraft performance through weight and drag reduction technologies.
In this sense, promising technologies will be identified and their estimated potential improvement modeled in the
simulation chain on different levels of fidelity. The required level of fidelity ranges from the use of technology
factors within PrADO till the integration of response surfaces, generated by high fidelity models, into the tool chain
in order to assess the potential of unconventional configurations or propulsion concepts. With this variable fidelity
approach, the best combination of technologies can be determined.
The trade between climate impact vs. costs -always a cost-benefit analysis- will be evaluated in the context of a
resulting cost deterioration for a given environmental performance improvement.
Besides the efficient technical realization of such a comprehensive climate impact analysis, further research
efforts are ongoing at the DLR to reduce the uncertainties concerning the modeling of aviation induced climate
impact and the related atmospheric interdependencies.

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Acknowledgments
The outlined methodology and simulation chain is developed in the DLR project Climate compatible Air
transport System (CATS) and in close cooperation with the following partners. All partners contribute to the project
with numerical models and their expert knowledge for the assessment of the obtained results. The project is led by
the Institute of Atmospheric Physics.
i. DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics
ii. DLR Institute of Air Transport Concepts and Technology Assessment
iii. DLR Institute of Propulsion Technology
iv. DLR Institute of Combustion Technology
v. DLR Institute of Flight Guidance
vi. DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine
vii. DLR Institute of Simulation and Software Technology
viii. Institute of Aircraft Design and Lightweight Structures - Technical University Braunschweig

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