Multidisciplinary Design of an Electrically Powered High-Lift System

To date, design processes for electrically powered compressor are mainly based on separate processes for each individual component. Whereas the blading is often designed by an integrated aerodynamic and mechanical design optimization, additional components such as the electrical machine are usually not included. These approaches neglect the interactions of the individual components, which can influence the system performance. This paper demonstrates a multidisciplinary design approach, combining an optimization approach for a compressor stage and an electrical machine. The automated optimization process is based on an evolutionary algorithm, evaluating each individual of a population in terms of aerodynamic performance, structural integrity and performance of the electrical machine. This approach is applied to the design of a mixed-flow compressor for active high-lift applications in aircraft. The results suggest that the overall system efficiency is mainly influenced by the compressor stage, whereas the system mass is dominated by the electrical components which highlights the need to combine both optimization approaches. Key design parameters of high power-density electrical-machine designs are identified. A comparison between a previous compressor-only optimization and a new design based on the new multidisciplinary optimization confirms the improvements the latter optimization approach yields.