Rolls-Royce announced today that it has successfully completed the first tests of its UltraFan technology demonstrator at its Derby facility in the UK. The first tests were carried out with 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
This is a historic moment for Rolls-Royce – it is the first time in 54 years that the aircraft engine manufacturer has tested an entirely new engine architecture and is a testament to what can be achieved when industry and governments work together.
Confirming the capability of the suite of technologies incorporated into the demonstrator is a big step towards improving the efficiency of current and future aircraft engines. The UltraFan offers a 10% efficiency improvement over the Trent XWB, which is already the world's most efficient large aero engine in service.
In the near term, there are options to transfer technologies from the UltraFan development program to current Trent engines, providing our customers with even more availability, reliability and efficiency. In the longer term, UltraFan's scalable technology of approximately 25.000-110.000 lbs of thrust offers the potential to power new wide and narrow body aircraft expected in the 2030s.
The tests took place in the world's largest and smartest in-house aircraft engine test facility – Testbed 80. The SAF fuel used in the tests is derived primarily from sustainable waste-based raw materials such as used cooking oil, supplied by Air bp .
The UltraFan has been under construction for a decade, with the concept publicly revealed in 2014. It is a fundamentally different design architecture to that of the approximately 4.200 large Rolls-Royce Civil engines currently in service, as it incorporates a gear design that in other players in the industry has produced this size before.
OPEN ROTOR CONCEPT
The second stage of development, and the most interesting one, takes Rolls-Royce technology to thrusters between 40 to 100 lbs of thrust. This concept uses a gearbox and an even larger Front Fan, the purpose of the gearbox is to decrease fan speed and increase engine core speed.
In addition, Rolls-Royce will shorten the turbine stages, as the gearbox generates more torque to turn the Front Fan.
Should Rolls-Royce decide to use an engine with common technology or similar layout to the Pure Power engine, P&W will collect patent rights on the product from RR. Despite this, the European manufacturer refuses a possible accusation that its gearbox would have engineering similar to that Pratt & Whitney used in engines of the Pure Power family. The big point is that Pratt & Whitney employs a star-shaped gear arrangement in the motors.
The manufacturer believes that by incorporating a gearbox in larger engines it is possible to achieve a ratio of 15: 1 between the air ing through the cold area and the hot air, which suffers burning, this means that for every 10 kg of air sucked in by the engine , less than 1 kg of it goes through burning, while more than 9 kg is accelerated and generates propulsion without having to inject fuel. Thus, it is possible to achieve even greater savings in the consumption of JET A-1.
For Paul Stein, Chief Technology Officer of Rolls-Royce, this also produces a significant change in aircraft. The company estimates that with such a high by, current engines that are 112 inches in diameter, such as the Trent 1000, will have a 140-inch diameter in the future. This results in changes in aircraft engineering, such as in the design of the nacelles for attaching the engine to the wing and also in the height of the landing gear, in order to maintain a minimum distance between the ground and the engine.
Rolls-Royce is still hoping to develop special materials in the new engine to compose the compressor and will use the 4th generation of composite materials in the Front Fan. The light components help to reduce the engine inertia, as well as they can help in the implementation of a new component cooling system.
The Open Rotor concept improves consumption by up to 25% compared to current engines and 5% compared to Advanced.
With information: Rolls-Royce
