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Contrail avoidance in the aircraft design process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

F. Noppel  and
R. Singh
F. Noppel
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, UK
R. Singh
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, UK
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Abstract

As aviation is one of the fastest growing industrial sectors world wide, air-traffic emissions are projected to increase their stake in the contribution to global warming. According to studies, both carbon dioxide and contrails are the principal air-traffic pollutants, whereas the impact from contrails in terms of radiative forcing is possibly larger than that of all other air-traffic pollutants combined. New regulations with the objective of mitigating contrail occurrences might cause a change in the design requirements of aircraft. In light of this, a method considering contrail formation during the aircraft design process is presented in this paper. Aircraft performance and optimisation is carried out with NASA’s flight optimisation system. Combining historical meteorological data with air-traffic data enables an assessment regarding contrail formation. As an example, a particular aircraft type in terms of range, speed and payload is optimised for minimum block fuel consumption considering different altitudes. The change in contrail formation in terms of contrail-km formed is calculated. The results suggest that if aircraft of the considered class were designed for higher altitudes, contrail occurrences would diminish slightly at a non-negligible fuel burn penalty.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 112 , Issue 1138 , December 2008 , pp. 733 - 737
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2008 

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