Thermal cycle analysis of turboelectric distributed propulsion system with boundary layer ingestion

A fundamental shift in propulsion system design was needed to satisfy future aircraftsʼ strict emission and fuel consumption requirements. The turboelectric distributed propulsion system (TeDP) uses electricity to transmit power from the core turbine to number of fans. This novel concept can dramatically increase bypass ratio to achieve lower fuel consumption and noise. This paper put forward a method to design a TeDP system on hybrid wing body airframe. An examination of the system thermodynamic performance for a range of fan pressure ratio (FPR) was made and FPR 1.3 was chosen for a detailed analysis. Finally, a comparison with results from the NASA N+3N+3 technical reports on TeDP system has been performed. The new model returned similar results but estimated the new system has lower specific fuel consumption at cruise for the same thrust level.