• Axial Compressors
• Aerodynamic Design of Turbomachinery

Research Projects

Design-Space Evaluation of the Air-, Heat- and Power-Management of Fuel Cells for Aviation

Hydrogen-based proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are among the most promising technologies for decarbonized propulsion of passenger aircraft. Such aircraft operate in a wide range of ambient conditions at altitudes up to 12 km. Therefore, a sophisticated and optimized air management system is required to provide the fuel cell stack with compressed ambient air at appropriate pressure, temperature, humidity, and mass flow over the entire flight envelope.

The followed approach is to explore the available design space for the air management system of a fuel cell powered commercial medium range passenger aircraft. Therefore, a preliminary design of all relevant components for an air management system will be conducted. The compressor and the turbine have the largest influence on the system behavior. For this reason, special emphasis is placed on the modelling and analysis of the turbomachinery components.