BERTL – Battery Wing for Electric Regional Transport Aircraft
The project aims to develop a battery-integrated-wing for advanced air mobility. This wing will enable aircraft to fly fully electric, with up to 9 passengers and up to 500 km, in an energy-efficient way.
Project Partners
Vaeridion GmbH, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Chair of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics and the Assistant Professorship of eAviation and Sustainable Flight
Duration
01.01.2023 – 31.12.2024
Funding authority
Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy
Motivation
Energy-efficient aircraft are of great interest for the future viability of aviation. One key challenge for the transition to electrification of this transport mode is the further optimization of the weight of energy storage components. Structural integration of batteries into the wing structure and optimal design of an aircraft with upswept wings can enable both a rapid contribution to sustainable aviation and the implementation of a fully electrified RAM. Furthermore, with the support of the Chair of Carbon Composites (LCC), the batteries required for electric flight are to be integrated into the wing structure, making the best possible use of the available installation space.
Method
The Chair of Carbon Composites will support the battery integration into the wing structure, providing the necessary mechanical parameters for the design and considering the thermal properties of the battery cells, such as energy release during an explosion. An experimental characterization of various composite materials under realistic thermal and mechanical conditions of thermal runaway conditions will be conducted for the material selection of the battery module housings. The materials will be evaluated based on the degree of damage. Thus, studying concepts to optimize the battery module integration in the wing. Furthermore, the manufacturing of a wing segment demonstrator will serve as a tangible representation of the integration approach.
Acknowledgement
The Chair would like to thank the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy for funding the project BERTL - Battery Wing for Electric Regional Transport Aircraft within the Bavarian Aviation Research Program - Holistic Air Mobility Initiative. (Grant number: HAM-2208-0031).
