Assessment of Liquid Hydrogen Propulsion System Architectures for a Blended Wing Body Concept

n this study, the performance of a BWB style aircraft with various propulsion systems utilizing the larger internal volume is compared to the performance of the baseline. Through all of the sizing exercises, the performance of the BWB will be constrained to not be less than the baseline while also not exceeding its size. This is important since for the design to have any real benefits to the aviation industry it must be at least able to do the task of existing aircraft while using as much common infrastructure as possible. For example: if the BWB aircraft were allowed to exceed the wingspan of the baseline, then they might not be able to use the same hangers and terminal connections as the aircraft they are supposed to be replacing. The Standard configuration airliner is evaluated using classic state-of-the-art aviation fuel burning high bypass turbofan engines. Once the baseline’s performance is characterized, the BWB is sized for two propulsion architectures: conventional kerosene burning high bypass turbofan engines and hydrogen burning high bypass turbofan engines