Integrated Numerical Modeling of a Hydrogen Turbofan Engine and Fuel System With Alternative Thermodynamic Cycles

A two-spool, separate-exhaust turbofan engine is modeled using the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation software. The scope of this work is to compare the performance of the baseline, kerosene-fueled engine with that of a hydrogen-fueled one, also exploring modifications to the traditional thermodynamic cycle. The thrust requirement is taken from that of a blended wing body architecture, while sensitivity analyses are performed on two design parameters, namely Fan Pressure Ratio and Overall Pressure Ratio. The two cycles studied here, i.e. regenerative fuel heating and expander cycle, exhibit the same performance in terms of Thrust-Specific Fuel Consumption, which is around 36% of that of the baseline, kerosene-fueled turbofan. Moreover, they both improve the Trust-Specific Energy Consumption of about 1% with respect to the kerosene engine at cruise conditions, under the simplified assumptions of this study. Finally, the feasibility of the architecture is verified by modeling the tanks and assessing their compliance with the dimensions of the reference aircraft and the mission it performs.