A Rapid Evaluation Method for the Aero-Propulsion Coupling Characteristics of a Distributed Electric Propulsion Aircraft

Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) aircraft typically refer to aircraft equipped with multiple electric propulsion units, providing more design flexibility and development potential in aviation. In order to investigate the aero-propulsion coupling characteristics of the wing section, we established a DEP aircraft with a twin-fuselage and tandem wing configuration, which is equipped with a total of 24 “high-lift” Electric Ducted Fans (EDFs) distributed along the wing’s trailing edge. This paper proposes a rapid evaluation method, aiming to analyze the aero-propulsion coupling characteristics of the DEP aircraft. The results using our proposed method are compared with wind tunnel experimental data to validate its accuracy. The results show that the EDFs can generate a significant lift increment and reduce drag, consistent with the potential benefits of low-speed Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI). The rapid evaluation method can accurately predict lift compared to experimental data but shows some deficiencies in predicting drag accurately. Finally, based on the established rapid evaluation method, an aerodynamic analysis is performed on the DEP aircraft equipped with 24 electric ducted fans. Using the rapid evaluation method, the whole DEP aircraft analysis is conducted on a computer with 12-core CPUs and 64 GB of RAM, with each state's solution time taking approximately half an hour. Compared to the time required for aerodynamic analysis using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) methods, the computation time is significantly reduced, making it highly suitable for early-stage aircraft design requiring iterative solutions.