A substantial increase of the overall aircraft efficiency is an prerequisite to achieve the vision of a future climate-neutral air transport system. Hence, the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement and the European green deal aim for a reduction of aircraft energy consumption of 50% by 2035. Consistently continued development of aircraft and propulsion technologies will contribute significantly to this target. The synergies associated with a highly increased integration of the propulsion systems into future transport aircraft contribute to this target to a similar degree with a potential of 10 to 20% additional energy savings. Main pillars of this integration are Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI), Distributed Propulsion (DP), the combination of thrust generation and aircraft control as well as the manifold aspects of integration of the propulsion systems into the airframe. The comprehensive assessment of the synergies and the optimally balanced application of the main pillars require a truly multidisciplinary, cross-system view of the entire aircraft and its systems. The synergies arise from physical processes and phenomena at the manifold interfaces between aircraft and propulsion systems. These make the interfaces between the associated disciplines as well as their physical models and methods fluent to an unprecedented extent. This raises the main research question:
Which means of interaction and integration of physical models as well as experimental and numerical methods beyond the current state of the art are successful in realizing the synergies and potentials of highly integrated transport aircraft, and how large are these potentials?
The CRC Transregio SynTrac comprises 3 research areas and combines the engineering disciplines of aerodynamics, acoustics, flight physics, structural mechanics and thermodynamics. More information on the 18 subprojects and the supporting projects can be found below. A central aspect of the approach is a novel and comprehensive assessment of the synergies and potentials comprising not only energy savings and thermodynamics but also the important aerodynamic couplings, flight dynamics, handling and control allocations as well as the acoustic signatures. It is based on attuned, in-depth research of cross-discipline and cross-system integration aspects defining the most promising space of optimization. They include aerodynamic, functional, design, structural-mechanical and environmental aspects of aircraft and propulsion system integration. The detailed investigation of physical processes of high impact which only become relevant at very high levels of integration of aircraft and propulsion system constitute novel fundamentals and enablers for cross-system integration and assessment. They comprise the physical description of multi-functional structures, phase transition phenomena enabling exhaust gas treatment, active flow control for the inhomogeneous flows entering the propulsors and advanced acoustic modelling.
