Supervisors: Prof. Thomas Esch (FH Aachen) and Prof. Milan Brandt (RMIT) and Prof. Bahman Shabani (RMIT)
Project 1: Fuel Cell In-Flight H2O Treatment On-Board
In a fuel cell, no emissions other than water vapor are produced. The processes within the fuel cell run at a lower temperature level, so that liquid water also increasingly escapes. The research idea includes the recirculation of the resulting water directly into the fuel cell, the methodology for generating suitable droplet sizes, and even the planning of climate-friendly flight routes. The research is intended to clarify what influence one can have on water emissions in system design.
Project 2: Modularization of Electric Powered Aviation System
Revolutionary aircraft designs would allow new aerodynamic concepts and a better integration of the energy conversion concepts including fuel cell systems and electric power compensation units like electric batteries (e.g., with a blended-wing-body design). One concept that is well suited for smaller and mid-sized aircraft is distributed energy conversion for propulsion demands. Several propellers on the wings and an adjusted wing layout lead to highly efficient wing design.
Project 3: Up-Scaling of Fuel Cell Systems through Synergies
Scale laws are the manifestations of mathematical relationships in the manner of exponential or polynomial relationships. Such relations are very common for the areas of system volume, weight, complexity and cost (structure-forming principle). These empirically found distributions are to be put on a theoretical basis. In the aviation sector, the synergies are in fuel cell weight and the demand of system cooling due to modularization, higher operating temperatures, and light heat exchangers.
