Improved NOx Emission for High Speed Airbreathing Engines using Plasma Effects

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With the ever in increasing emphasis of both the public, and the industrial community, on ensuring the environmental sustainability of all facets of engineering, the aviation sector has had to adjust accordingly. Anthropogenic aviation sourced particulate matter, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and NOx emissions continue to be a focus of concern given their detrimental influence on the air quality environment. In 2020 the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) issued new emission standards applicable to all aircraft engines producing over a given amount of thrust in production from 2023 onwards requireing among other things, a continued improvement in NOx emission. Although focused on improving the environmental impact of current and next generation subsonic gas turbine based engines, this type of scrutiny will only continue to gain traction in the coming years. As such, this proposal seeks to develop NOx emission evaluation tools suitable for high speed airbreathing engines under development on aircraft traveling well above the sonic threshold. In addition to suitable evaluation methodologies, this proposal also seeks to investigate and potentially apply the effects of small Dielelectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators within these high speed engines in an effort to reduce their NOx emission characteristics without substantially degrading their performance. Using the tools and concepts developed as part of this proposal, environmental considerations can be taken into effect during the design phase of these engines which have yet to be operationally deployed. This will yield cleaner, more environmentally friendly engines than those that are developed in the absence of this type of information (which would likely require costly changes applied retroactively in order to meet the environmental standards that most certainly will be applied in the future). Not only will this help the environment, but it will help train Canadian talent capable of influencing the direction of some of the most challenging research topics in the aerospace field, while at the same time developing simulation technologies at the leading edge of the engineering discipline.