Aerodynamic Modelling of a Small Electric Aircraft

Aviation industry is witnessing a major shift towards electrification, with a lot of research and development efforts focused on improving battery performance. Developing comprehensive models of airplanes can play an essential role in facilitating the performance evaluation of electric plane battery packs under various flight scenarios and investigating approaches to improve their utilization towards maintaining a longer and healthier life. In this paper, a mathematical model representing the aerodynamics of a small electric plane is developed. The objective is to determine the required thrust based on an actual flight dataset and determine the profiles of the required torque exerted on the shaft of the electric motor and rotational speed of the motor. These profiles can then be used as references for the load torque and motor speed control loops in the model of aircraft electric powertrain, allowing studies on the performance of the battery pack and research on how to improve battery performance. The propeller, as the component responsible for generating thrust is analyzed and its coefficients are obtained. Thrust is calculated for various flight phases and conditions based on the dynamic equations of motion considering pitch, roll and yaw orientations. The flight data of Pipistrel Velis Electro, which is a small electric aircraft, is used for validation of the model through comparison of the motor speed estimated by the model to the actual motor speed provided by the dataset.