Optimizing Separate Exhaust Turbofans for Cruise Specific Fuel Consumption

Abstract

Cruise specific fuel consumption (SFC) of turbofan engines is a key metric for increasing airline profitability and for reducing CO2 emissions. Although increasing design bypass ratio (BPR) of separate exhaust turbofan configurations improves cruise SFC, further improvements can be obtained with control actuated variable geometry modulations of core nozzle throat area, bypass nozzle throat area, and compressor variable vanes (CVV). The scope of this paper is to show only the benefits possible, and the process used in determining those benefits, and not to suggest any particular control algorithm for searching the best combination of the control effectors. A parametric cycle study indicated that the effector modulations could increase the cruise BPR, core efficiency, transmission efficiency, propulsive efficiency, and ideal velocity ratio resulting in a cruise SFC improvement of as much as 2.6% depending upon the engine configuration. The changes in these metrics with control effector variations will be presented. Modulation of CVV is already possible in legacy digital controls, and modulation of nozzle areas should be explored in light of the low bandwidth requirements at steady-state cruise conditions.