Electric Propulsion Component Sizing for Optimal Aircraft Configuration

Abstract

LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions is developing mission-optimized electric propulsion systems. Unlike traditional aircraft development where designs are often driven by available propulsion systems, the relative simplicity of electric propulsion opens up the possibility that bespoke propulsion components may be developed and optimized for a particular vehicle configuration and mission. Electric propulsion is new to many aerospace designers and there is not yet a good body of knowledge about the performance of electric propulsion components. LaunchPoint aims to fill this gap by developing user-friendly physics-based electric propulsion models for multi-disciplinary optimization in vehicle/mission designs. To date, the existing vehicle configuration studies have largely used curve fits of existing electric propulsion components that do not accurately capture all of the relationships between motor and power electronics size, mass, efficiency, voltage, torque, and rpm and how those different motor parameters affect the overall vehicle performance. In a step toward revealing these relationships, this paper presents the design results from the coupling of detailed parametric motor and drive models with a simple eVTOL vehicle model.