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PAPER SERIES 2008-01-2860
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2008-01-2860
(90o and 180o turns) with repeated stop / start the life of the engine will not be affected by any form of
requirements as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. no-engine taxiing methods.
Understanding of aircraft taxi manoeuvres and taxi
profiles is important as such manoeuvres and profiles The duration required for engine warm up is also
govern the functional requirements, the operating influenced by the engine temperature at start up; longer
regimes and the duty cycles of the wheel-drive electrical durations are required to start a cold engine than a warm
machines and drives. engine. The term “cold engine” refers to an engine that
has been shut down for a substantial period of time after
the last landing. The definition of cold engine varies for
different engines – general guidance on the definition
Heading to take
off start line,
appropriate to a particular engine is given in the
engine on corresponding aircraft Standard Operating Procedures
Taxi out, engine off (SOPs) [1].
Engines start The requirement for engine warm up and engine cool
Push back, down has two implications. The first is that in small or
engine off
low traffic airports, if the aircraft taxiing duration is less
than the duration required for engine warm up or engine
cool down, the electric wheel-drive taxiing system will be
Figure 1 Anticipated aircraft taxi out procedure of no use to the corresponding aircraft. The second
implication is that when comparing fuel use of the
electric wheel-drive taxiing concept, or other types of no-
engine alternative taxiing concepts, to the existing
Touch down, engine on method for the same taxi duration, fuel consumption of
the engines during the warm up and cool down period
Taxi in, engine off
must be taken into account.
KEY CONSTRAINTS
Figure 2 Anticipated aircraft taxi in procedure The selected short haul aircraft has a retractable tricycle
landing gear arrangement, consisting of two steerable
ENGINE OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS nose wheels and four main wheels. The long haul
aircraft has a multi-wheel landing gear arrangement of
Rotor bow refers to the physical deformation or out-of- two steerable nose wheels and several sets of grouped
round condition of a rotating element. Rotors can bow multiple main wheels. The Maximum Design Taxi
through a number of mechanisms but uneven Weight (MTW) of the aircraft is fully supported by both
temperature distribution is one of the major contributors the nose landing gear and the main landing gear. The
in most cases. Bows introduced into a rotor from MTW is the maximum weight for ground manoeuvres as
asymmetrical heating or improper cooling are generally limited by the aircraft strength and airworthiness
referred to as ‘Thermal Bows’. A common example is a requirements and it includes the weight of the taxiing
hot rotor that is shutdown without adequate time to cool and the run-up fuel [2-3]. (Run-up fuel is the fuel used at
down. the end of taxiing to build up maximum thrust from
ground idle ready for take-off.) The weight distribution
Rotor bow is not generally an issue of concern when between the nose landing gear and the main landing
aircraft main engines are used to perform the taxiing gear varies with the aircraft’s centre of gravity and hence
procedure, since the taxi procedure involves significant the load at each aircraft wheel will also vary. The
time at low engine power allowing the engine to warm up amount of load available at each wheel directly
or cool down. If no-engine alternative aircraft taxiing determines the amount of traction available at each
methods are to replace the current main engine taxiing wheel to put the aircraft in motion. Typically, the nose
method, sufficient time to allow for engine warm up and landing gear supports between 5% and 10% of an
engine cool down must be taken into account. Prior to aircraft’s MTW, depending upon whether the centre of
take off, sufficient warm up time is required by the gravity is forward or aft [2-3]. The nose landing gear has
aircraft engines to gradually absorb the heat soak to minimum (5%) wheel load when the aircraft has an aft
steady state idle conditions to avoid rotor bow and to centre of gravity and maximum (10%) wheel load when
complete the thermal cycle to build up sufficient take off the aircraft’s centre of gravity is located in the forward
thrust. Similarly, after landing, sufficient cool down region. The rest of the aircraft MTW is supported by the
duration is required to allow for gradual dissipation of main landing gear. Depending on the number of main
heat from the engines to avoid rotor bow. The amount wheels available on the main landing gear structure, this
of warm up and cool down time can vary depending on weight is equally distributed across each of the main
the engine size but it is important to build in sufficient wheels.
allowance appropriate to the engine size to ensure that
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Comparison of the results in Table 2 and Table 4 The very high torque and slow speed operational
indicates that the main wheel-drive configuration is specification for the aircraft taxiing operation indicated
adequate for medium runway conditions, or better, with that a sufficiently compact direct drive electrical machine
an incline of up to 4o and even with bad runway was unlikely to be feasible. In applications where high
conditions, the main wheel-drive configuration can move torque is required but the volumetric space envelope is a
the aircraft from static on a flat runway or one with 1o of significant design constraint, gears are used in
incline. conjunction with high-speed machines to overcome the
space constraint whilst achieving the torque
Similar calculations were performed on the selected long requirement. Utilisation of gearing can help to reduce
haul aircraft. These indicated that at least half of the the size and weight of the wheel-drive electrical
main wheels were required to provide sufficient traction machines. The size reduction associated with an
to achieve a similar performance to that of the short haul electrical machine is usually proportional to the gear
aircraft. Even though 90%-95% of the aircraft’s MTW is ratio, up to a certain threshold. However, the weight of
supported by the aircraft’s main landing gear, the total the gear itself can be significant. Selection of an
load is distributed uniformly across all of the main appropriate gear to achieve the required reduction in
wheels, therefore the resultant wheel load available at machine size involves a balance between the weight of
each main wheel is only marginally larger than the wheel the machine and that of the gearbox.
load on a single nose wheel. As a result, half of the long
If a geared wheel-drive system is to be utilised, a failsafe
haul aircraft’s main wheels are required to provide
mechanism will be required to prevent the wheels from
sufficient traction to move the aircraft.
locking up due to a mechanical failure, i.e. due to the
gear system jamming, especially during aircraft push
CONSTRAINTS ASSOCIATED WITH RETRO-FIT back from the gate terminal to the apron. A clutching
mechanism is also likely to be required to disengage the
Apart from the above constraints, the study has also
gear train from the wheel-drive machines once the
identified additional constraints associated with a retrofit
aircraft reaches its engine start bay prior to engine start
electric powered wheel-drive taxiing system solution.
to ensure that the main wheels can freewheel during
The study concluded that a retrofit solution cannot be
take off – the wheel-drive machine is not required to
achieved, due to the following reasons:
operate (i.e. provide torque) at the speeds required for
x The main wheel-drive configuration is hampered by aircraft take-off but must either be structurally sound at
the very limited space available for the hub-mounted these speeds or must be disengaged. Similar
wheel-drive electrical machines. requirements apply during aircraft landing, prior to touch
down.
x The torque density of the electrical machines to
achieve a wheel-drive assembly comparable to the In general, increasing the current density in an electrical
wheel size on existing aircraft is not currently machine helps to reduce the size of the machine.
available. However, the limiting factor associated with the increase
in current density is the winding temperature rise, which
x The capacity of the existing onboard APU is in turn depends on the cooling arrangement. The key to
insufficient to provide the power required by the achieving a very high torque density for a machine which
wheel-drive system. is only used for a short duration is to exploit the thermal
x The aircraft landing gear structures are not currently mass of the winding, and to some extent the remainder
designed to be driven at nominal taxi speed. of the machine, to achieve a short-term current density
rating which is several times the continuous value. This
x The existing landing gear cannot accommodate the should be achieved without exceeding the maximum
weight of the electrical machines. temperature of the machine, while ensuring that the
wheel-drive system will have sufficient residual capability
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS to perform the subsequent aircraft taxiing sequence.
Weight is a crucial factor in the design of any An estimate of the current density that can be employed
commercial airplane system due to its direct influence on for transient operation can be obtained by considering
fuel consumption during takeoff, climb and at cruising the heating of the coil during starting as a purely
altitude. The consequences of the additional onboard adiabatic process, i.e. none of the heat generated in the
weight are reduction in payload and mission range. In winding leaves during the transient. This is a worst-case
addition, extra weight on an aircraft is limited by the estimate, the validity of which depends on the duration
aircraft strength and airworthiness requirements. of the starting period and the cooling methods employed
Furthermore, the size and weight of the wheel-drive within the machine. Figure 3 shows the calculated time
electrical machines could influence the mechanical and for a winding to heat from an initial ambient temperature
the aerodynamic performance of the landing gear. of 40qC to 180qC. The times quoted are applicable to
Therefore, the size and weight of the wheel-drive any machine, since they are independent of the volume
electrical machines employed should ideally be of copper in the winding. This shows that if the winding
comparable to that of the aircraft’s wheels. insulation material selected for the wheel-drive electrical
machine has a temperature rating of 180oC, 43 seconds
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is available before the thermal rating of the insulation down, additional fuel burn during the flight due to
material is exceeded, with a current density of 20 additional weight of the wheel-drive equipment
A/mm2. However, it is important to recognise that (estimated at approximately 500 kg for the machine,
although the torque from an electrical machine increases converter and gearbox for the short-haul aircraft), the
in direct proportion to the current density at low values, increased weight of the higher capacity APU and the
gradual onset of magnetic saturation in the stator core potential aircraft structural reinforcement requirements.
dictates the upper limit of the current density. However, due to the difficulty in predicting the weight
increases due to the higher capacity APU and the
300 aircraft structural reinforcement requirements, these
250
aspects have not been included in this mission fuel trade
assessment. The APU thermal efficiency has been
Temperature ( o C)
200
taken as constant while increasing the rating of the APU
150 to accommodate the additional electric load.
100
The mission fuel trade has been estimated by comparing
50
the total fuel burn by the engine,s only taxiing method
0 against the electric wheel-drive taxiing method for a
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (s)
range of assumed aircraft taxi durations. For a given
aircraft taxi duration, mission fuel trade was obtained by
using the following formula:
Figure 3 Time taken for winding temperature to increase
from 40oC to 180oC at a current density of 20 A/mm2.
Mission fuel trade = Total fuel burn by engines for W min
Apart from the maximum resisting torque discussed aircraft taxi duration (taxi with main engines only) – Total
above, the requirements for the electric wheel-drive fuel burn by [(engine warm up for 5 min) + (engine cool
system can become increasingly challenging in the down for 5 min) + (APU for W min minus 10 min) + (effect
presence of other critical design criteria such as the of the additional estimated electric wheel-drive
ability of the wheel-drive system to cope with maximum equipment weight during flight for a selected mission
ground incline, maximum taxi speed, maximum profile)].
acceleration rate or a combination of all of the above.
In order to be an airworthy, integrated part of the overall A positive fuel trade result indicates that the electric
aircraft, the electric wheel-drive system should be highly wheel-drive taxiing system contributes to a mission fuel
reliable, easy to install, easy to remove as an assembly saving whereas a negative fuel trade result indicates that
and easy to replace. In addition, the wheel-drive system the amount of fuel consumed due to the additional weight
should be low maintenance and not require specialist of the electric wheel-drive system equipment is greater
tools for routine maintenance and servicing. The electric than the amount of fuel consumed with existing engines-
wheel-drive assembly should also be designed to only taxiing method. The results of the mission fuel
withstand contamination, corrosion, the temperature and trade assessment are shown in Table 5 and Table 6.
the humidity of the operating environment. The system
should be designed to be failsafe and any failure modes
should not lead to catastrophic events that could SHORT HAUL AIRCRAFT
jeopardise the safety of the aircraft.
100%
Assumed Taxi Duration
MISSION FUEL USE payload
Mission
The efficiency benefits of the electric wheel-drive taxiing 50 min 31 min 14 min 10 min
(nm)
concept as compared to the existing aircraft taxiing
method will largely accrue through the elimination of 500 + + - -
main engine running at idle during taxiing, rather than 1000 + + - -
being directly determined by the inherent efficiency of
the electrical machine and gear train. 1500 + + - -
2000 + + - -
To illustrate the above, we take a typical taxi (i.e. ground
idle) power setting of 7% of maximum [5]. To work out 2500 + - - -
the mission fuel trade associated with electric wheel-
drive taxiing, it is important to take into account the APU Table 5 Fuel trade indicators for various mission range
fuel consumption (assuming that the APU is used to for a short haul aircraft
power the electric wheel-drive system), engine fuel
consumption during engine warm up and engine cool
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Rolls-Royce plc for
permission to publish. The More Electric initiative at
Rolls-Royce involves too many people to name
individually but the authors would like to acknowledge
contributions to this initiative from colleagues in the
Electrical Systems team in the US, UK and Germany,
the Rolls-Royce Strategic Research Centre, and from
colleagues at the Rolls-Royce University Technology
Centres (UTCs) at the Universities of Strathclyde,
Sheffield and Manchester.