special edition eco-design · products into the market. the extensive use of novel-developed lca...

n° 19 June 2016

Special edition Eco-Design

www.cleansky.eu

Innovation takes off

This project is funded by the European Union

Emerging eco-compliance policy in aeronautics

Eco-Design Members and Partners:

The following ITD leaders with affiliates have been involved in

the activities: AIRBUS, AGUSTAWESTLAND, FINMECCANICA, AIRBUS

DEFENCE AND SPACE, AIRBUS HELICOPTERS, LIEBHERR, SAFRAN,

AND THALES.

In addition the following associated partners have been involved:

AIRBUS INNOVATION, HELLENIC AEROSPACE INDUSTRY, ISRAELIAN

AEROSPACE INDUSTRY, THE NETHERLAND CLUSTER LED BY FOKKER

(FOKKER AEROSTRUCTURES, NLR, SERGEM ENGINEERING, TU-DELFT

AND, THE UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE), AND THE RUAG CLUSTER (RUAG,

HUNTSMAN ADVANCED MATERIALS, EPFL, UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED

SCIENCES OF NORTH-WESTERN SWITZERLAND, ETH ZURICH, CYTEC,

HADEG RECYCLING).

List of all Clean Sky Partners: ALPEX • ADVISE • AERO MAGNESIUM •

AEROMECHS SRL • AIMME • ALCAN CRV • ALPLA CONSULTING SERVICE

S.R.L. • AMIC • AMITRONICS • ASCAMM • AXYAL S.A.S • AZTERLAN • BFT

• BIO IS • BME • BRE • CC • CEIT • CEST • CIDAUT • CIRCOMP • CLEMESSY

• CNRS • COBRATEX • CODET BV • COMOTI • CTME • CWM • DII-SUN

• EGMOND PLASTIC BV • ENSCL • ENVISA SAS • ESIEE • EURO HEAT

PIPES SA • FIBRALCO AE • FIBRE • FIBRETECH • FIDAMC • FMC • GAIKER

• GALVATEC • GIT • GMI AERO SAS • HAPPY PLATING • HAZEMEYER •

HZG • ICTP-CNR • INATEC • ITALSYSTEM S.R.L • ITALTECNO S.R.L. • ITRB

• IVW • JALLUT • KES • KRAH&GROTE • LEITAT • LMG • LORTEK • LPW LTD

• M. TORRES • MIRTEC • MODELON • MODELON • MUL • NANOTEST •

NCCEF • NI UK • NTUA • NUID UCD • PBLH • PEINT • PMV INDUSTRIE

• PPG COATINGS • PROMET • QSG • REFIAL • RESCOLL • RESNOVADIE

• RIC • SCOURING • SELFRAG • SIC • SIGMATEX • STRAERO • STREIT

• SUNAP • TECNALIA • TEMES • TESEO • TILSATEC • TNO • TRIPHASE

• TWI LTD • UAEGEAN • UBO • UC3M • UMAN • UNIBO • UNIPD •

UNIVBRIS • UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS • UNOTT • USTUTT • UVA • VESO

Best Clean Sky Projects 2016

Examples of Eco-Design demonstrators

1018

7

Contents

Editorial 3

Eco-Design in Clean Sky 4

A view from the coordinator 6

Emerging eco-compliance policy

in aeronautics 7

IRIDA Project 8

MAGNOLYA Project 9

Example of Eco-Design Demonstrators 10

Eco-Design for Airframe (EDA) 12

Eco-Design for Systems (EDS) 13

Clean Sky Forum 2016 14

Environmental & Resource Assessment

in the Aviation Industry 15

Views of the airframers 16

What for Eco-Design in Clean Sky 2 17

The SENTRY Project 18

The GeT FuTuRe Project 19

The FLIP Project 19

Events 20

3Skyline 19 | June 2016

EDITORIAL

Eric Dautriat Executive Director of the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking

Eco-Design is the first Integrated Technology Demonstrator (ITD) to come to its conclusion,

having completed its programme by the end of 2015. The final review took place in April 2016. The least we could do to celebrate this ITD and the ‘Eco-Design’ concept is to publish a special dedicated issue of Skyline!

In the following articles, you will find all the necessary insight into the rationale, the organisation and the technical achievements of this ITD, which are closely aligned with the initial objectives.

In the Clean Sky art gallery, Eco-Design is an original piece of work. It may be the smallest ITD in terms of budget allocation but it is the most varied, ranging from materials to electrical systems, to engines, to airframe structures – covering a very wide spectrum of aeronautical hardware and technical disciplines. Eco-Design has been interfacing with all the other ITDs - a good symbol of what Clean Sky intends to be: not just a series of individual projects, but a coherent, interlinking programme.

Eco-Design is an area where aviation is not – or was not – a forerunner; lessons could be learnt from, for example, the automotive sector, about Life Cycle Assessment processes. Conversely, I’m sure that significant spill-overs will now be provided back to such other sectors.

Eco-Design’s work is about decreasing the environmental footprint of an aircraft throughout its life - except for the operational phase, which is addressed by all the other ITDs – meaning that it addresses manufacturing, maintenance and disposal. Of course, most of the CO2 emitted by an aircraft is due to its operations, but this is not a reason for disregarding the other phases.

The technical effort for sustainable aviation and a sustainable industry must be undertaken everywhere, with a reasonable balance of funding. Yet improving the environmental footprint of these phases is not only about CO2, or energy consumption; through the ‘bills of materials’ approaches, issues such as the impact on abiotic depletion, reduced use of harmful substances, or reducing all kinds of waste, have been widely addressed. Needless to say, the REACH regulation has played a significant role in the selection of new technologies to be developed.

In Eco-Design, you will not find big, multi-million euro demonstrators like the flight tests of laminarity, the Open Rotor or the composite fuselage. It is, however, the ITD with the most demonstrators, at a more elementary level. Eco-Design is also the champion of SME participation in Clean Sky: an ideal field for them to bring innovative ideas up to full-scale demonstration parts.

A lot of effort was made in designing environmentally-friendly pieces of hardware, with 50 technologies included in demonstrators: from new seats, to structure panels, to engine parts. And while the operational phase of the aircraft life is not an explicit objective of Eco-Design, it often happened that weight savings, also impacting the operations, were achieved through this process.

Through the ‘systems’ part of the ITD, two large test facilities, already highlighted in previous issues of our magazine, have been either 1) upgraded: Copper Bird, an electrical bench dedicated to testing the electrical chain, or 2) fully developed in Clean Sky: the Thermal Bench, the necessity of which stems from the need to manage the higher and higher dissipated heat from more electric equipment.

Eco-Design was led by Dassault Aviation – because business jets are flying far less than airliners, hence a higher relative weight of manufacturing and maintenance; but also because of Dassault’s capacity to address the full aircraft design in a demanding environment – and Fraunhofer Institute, the technological background of which, in aeronautics but also in other sectors, was the perfect fit for this varied content.

First place in the 2016 Clean Sky Best Projects from Partners Awards was won by an Eco-Design project, SENTRY, as you will read later in this magazine. I praise the three winners, but also all those who had been pre-selected and who featured in the exhibit area of our Clean Sky

Forum on April 4th. That event was the best of the last seven years of Clean Sky, with a tangible atmosphere of warm support to the programme as a whole, to the Joint Undertaking, and to all the players in this common adventure, now well-engaged in its second step, Clean Sky 2, which has already accomplished an amazing volume of work and a very fast ramp-up.

Back to Eco-Design, which has now become, in Clean Sky 2, a ‘transverse activity’, the technical content of which will be performed in each technology platform. The coordination among them will be ensured by Fraunhofer Institute and Dassault Aviation, who, despite having now become a leader of the Airframe ITD, remains fully committed to our Eco-Design activities.

The fact that Eco-Design is now embedded in the scope of work of each platform is the

demonstration of the maturity and wider interest gained by this concept throughout Clean Sky 1. Now that Eco-Design 1 is closing, the time has come to grow its continuator, and dedicate the necessary energy to it.

This was my 19th and last editorial, mostly focused on Eco-Design. Twenty editorials would have been an easier, round figure. Too bad! In case you are looking for a more general look back on the Clean Sky journey, please see our previous issue, Skyline 18.

Dear readers, I wish you all the best for the continuation of this Undertaking if you are in any way part of it, and for joining it, if you aren’t yet.

Eric Dautriat

In the Clean Sky art gallery, Eco-Design is an original piece of work.

Skyline 19 | June 20164

ECO-DESIGN IN CLEAN SKY

An important part of both FP7’s and ACARE’s agendas is the development of innovative

green technologies aiming to reduce the environmental impact of aviation. In order to explore a novel disciplined and harmonised way to assess the benefits of these technologies at component and aircraft level through life cycle engineering analyses (LCA), Clean Sky created a dedicated Integrated Technology Demonstrator (ITD) project. Aiming to introduce new perspectives in future aeronautical products developed by the European industry, the Eco-Design ITD was born.

The aeronautical industry, in view of the expected continued expansion of market opportunities in the coming decades, is faced with important challenges. The whole sector should be more eco-compliant and adequately prepared to meet future requirements. It needs to develop new technologies and methodologies to guarantee a new product introduction process which is aware of eco-related aspects and impact, and at the same time catch up with other sectors already more advanced in the field.

The optimal use of materials, energy, and resources involved in the production and avoidance of hazardous no REACH¹ compliant materials, as well as energy consumption optimisation of aircraft on-board systems, will in future help to considerably reduce the environmental impact of new aviation products and systems being introduced into the market.

Eco-Design started its operations in late 2008 and is the first Clean Sky ITD to have completed all technical activities by the end of 2015. A final review was held in Saint Cloud (Paris) from 5-7 April 2016 at the coordinator’s (Dassault Aviation) premises.

The Eco-Design ITD - which is focused on, but not limited to, business and regional aircrafts - was conceived to deal with new ecological aircraft structures, systems and more electrical aircraft architectures through two dedicated projects: Eco-Design for Airframe (EDA) and Eco-Design for Systems (EDS).

The programme led to the demonstration of important innovations in materials and processes technologies, increased use of long-life structures on wings, and aircraft parts’ recyclability supported by novel LCA methodologies. The ITD worked in synergy with other ITDs, particularly the Technology

Evaluator, to assess the benefits of newly-applicable technologies on a wider level.

PartnershipEDA and EDS were conducted in parallel by the ITD co-leaders Dassault Aviation, acting as coordinator, and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, with an involvement of 142 entities acting as members and partners t h r o u g h C a l l s f o r Proposals.

101 entities involved through 69 partners’ projects, 40% of which were SMEs, brought essential skills and competences to the Eco-Design ITD regarding material technologies, green processes, recycling, dismantling, and LCA tools, in order to accelerate the introduction of ecological aspects within the development process of new aircraft models.

Eco-Design for Airframe (EDA) demonstratorsApart from the technology development carried out, several demonstrators were realised and tested within EDA. These demonstrators focused on: improving the ecological impact of aeronautical products; reducing primary energy demand in production, waste and emissions; and increasing recyclability, covering all phases of aircraft life cycle.

Representing around 40 realistic aircraft parts, the demonstrators incorporate some of the most relevant technologies developed in the project for novel green materials and processes, long life structures, end of life for aircraft metallic and composite structures, equipment and cabin interiors. Some more complex demonstrators incorporated more than 10 novel technologies developed by members and partners for materials, surface treatments, and production methods including additive manufacturing, biomaterials, and recycling at an adequate technology readiness level to accelerate the introduction of greener products into the market.

The extensive use of novel-developed LCA tools, compliant with ISO guidelines and coupled to a newly-developed database of key aeronautic processes, allowed the ITD to support a proper technology selection, providing valuable ecological

assessments to compare the validity of new more eco-compliant solutions.

Eco-Design for Systems (EDS) demonstratorsIn the context of EDS, two large-scale ground test benches were developed. They focused on improving the understanding of aircraft electrical and thermal aspects, alongside the use of advanced modelling tools.

Test capabilities to reproduce aircraft electrical architectures were enhanced through the evolution of COPPER BIRD ground test bench at Labinal Power Systems. This project was a step forward compared to efforts made in previous POA (Power Optimised Aircraft) EU project. COPPER BIRD achieved its objective to validate and enable new energy management solutions adapted to airframers’ specifications aimed at future more efficient electrical aircraft architectures, through integrated system modelling and reducing ground and flight tests through the availability of novel bench systems and equipment. It is now able to generate, control and distribute energy in a smarter way with an improved level of quality, stability and safety, and is coupled with realistic aircraft equipment.

Another completely new thermal test bench was developed at Fraunhofer IBP, reproducing realistic conditions to evaluate thermal management aspects inside an aircraft. Three realistic aircraft fuselage sections (composite cockpit, metallic cabin and rear section-empennage) were prepared for the purpose, in collaboration with a partner project involving SMEs, and equipped with

Paolo TrinchieriEco-Design Project Officer, Clean Sky

1 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_en.htm


simulators representing real aircraft equipment. An additional section (calorimeter) was realised to reproduce extreme operating and emergency conditions (thermal shock and decompression). Bench tests, coupled with new accurate modelling of the thermal environment, allowed the reproduction of realistic aircraft flight conditions for the benefit of airframers, thus helping to define more efficient systems architecture to reduce ground and flight tests.

Major achievements and potential impactThe Eco-Design ITD enabled European industry and involved partners to introduce and manage ecological aspects inside a more integrated greener design and development for future generations of aircraft, and to respond to future requirements and emerging regulations.

Aspects like lower resources consumption, waste and emissions reduction and increased recyclability of components were considered and applied as good practises in developing new manufacturing technologies and processes. For example, out of autoclave and liquid composite moulding technologies are suitable processes to be further enhanced for the development of composite aircraft components. Combined one-shot curing processes could enhance the production of more integrated structures.

Metallic structures using novel low-weight Aluminium, Aluminium-Lithium alloys in the design separation and recycling aspects, together with increased use of titanium and magnesium parts and a more extensive use of additive manufacturing technology, can allow raw material production and manufacturing to be realised in an optimised, more energy-efficient way. Development of long-life structures will save raw materials, extending materials and parts life performance and delaying aircraft ground maintenance.

Another possibility for further development is the end of life phase, focusing on material identification, recovery and recycling.

Newly-developed Eco-Design tools will support engineers in environmental impact assessment of new aircraft development, starting from a disciplined and ISO-compliant process, to collect and analyse data.

As for electrical architectures and components for more electrical aircraft applications, the two key test benches (electrical and thermal) provide the framework to test novel more efficient solutions for aircraft on-board generation

and distribution systems, accelerating the introduction of more electrical solutions into the market.

These achievements are valuable for the next step: implementing the Eco-Design Transverse Activity within Clean Sky 2. This new programme aims to further accelerate the implementation of eco-related aspects into future aircraft definition while keeping the European aeronautical industry competitive.

THE COORDINATING PROJECT OFFICER’S VIEW

Giuseppe PagnanoCoordinating Project

Officer, Clean Sky

When Clean Sky 1 was launched, the idea of a dedicated ITD to Eco-Design was

in continuity with some L2 projects already developed, but differed from other Clean Sky ideas to focus on the environmental impact of aviation through greener technology development. The concept to critically examine the overall life cycle of an aeronautical system or component, from conception/design to production to disposal (considering the operation life only for the maintenance part) was a novelty.

Although mainly concerning ‘small aircraft’ (namely BizJet, regional and rotorcraft), the ECO ITD has contributed to improving the understanding of the

ecological themes across all aviation sectors, also influencing engines and large aircraft, and, at the end of the CS1 programme, being incorporated in the Technology Evaluator’s final assessment.

The need to interface and integrate different requirements, while providing qualified ‘services’ like the Electrical Test Bench, was the main challenge for the operation of the ITD; another aspect representing a lesson learnt is the split of the activities between Eco-Design for Airframe (EDA) and Eco-Design for Systems (EDS). The content of Eco activities in Clean Sky 2 has been defined in a different way, targeting a transversal approach.

The main achievements of the ITD include the demonstration of new materials and processes, the eco-statements (comparison of innovative solutions vs. standard productions) which applied to several representative components, the progress on electrical architectures towards more electric aircraft configuration, and the first complete thermal test bench integrating simulation and validation testing.

ECO completed its technical activities in 2015, making it the forerunner of the closure of all other CS1 projects, with indications for the management of final reporting and final reviews being extended to all other ITDs.

Eco-Design Partners


The Eco-Design ITD has succeeded in bringing together a large number of participants within

a complex structure. These participants have cooperated throughout the programme to make the ITD a success.

The Eco-Design team includes Dassault Aviation and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as the co-leaders and 8 other ITD leaders as Members: Airbus, Finmeccanica (Velivoli and Helicopters division), Airbus Helicopters, Airbus Defense & Space, Liebherr, SAFRAN and Thales. Five Associates are added to this core team: a Swiss cluster led by RUAG, a Netherlands cluster led by Fokker, Hellenic

Aerospace Industry, Israel Aerospace Industries and Airbus Group Innovation. This represents a total of 41 beneficiaries involved in the project.

Since 2009, 69 projects successfully won Calls for Proposals and have been conducted by Partners representing the involvement of 105 additional entities, including a large number of SMEs (57) and academic organisations (38), from 16 countries.

In the EDA (Eco-Design for Airframe) part of the ITD, a lot of topics were devoted to the development and maturation of individual eco-friendly technologies. A typical team for such topics

was the association of the research entity and an SME. The first brought scientific knowledge on the technology and the second, thanks to its flexibility, was in charge of the industrial maturation.

The EDS (Eco-Design for Systems) project was focused on development and maturation of modelling and optimisation tools oriented towards the more electric aircraft. Nineteen partners, including 13 SMEs, were involved in the thermal and electrical large ground test benches devoted to the tools validations and technologies demonstrations.

ECO-DESIGN : A FULL COOPERATIVE PROJECT

ECO-DESIGN IN CLEAN SKY

A VIEW FROM THE COORDINATOR

Yvon Ollivier, Dassault Aviation, Senior Project Manager, Future Falcon Technology, R&D and Advanced Business

Bruno StouffletVice-President R&T and Advanced Business, Dassault Aviation, Vice-Chairman of Clean Sky Governing Board

The Eco-Design ITD project which started on October 1st 2008 has been technically

completed on December 31st 2015. It was focused on:

• Designing equipped airframe with a minimum environmental footprint encompassing inputs (raw materials, energy, water,…), outputs and nuisances (energy /warming, liquid effluents, gaseous effluents, solid waste, …) all along the out-of-operation phases of the life cycle;

• Suppressing non-renewable and/or noxious substances (i.e. suppression of conventional hydraulic fluids) during operations and maintenance, while keeping the aircraft at the appropriate level of quality and performance.

Considering that the average number of business jet flight hours is ten times lower than those of liners, manufacturing, maintenance and dismantling of the aircraft are operations which have a proportionally more significant ecological impact in the global balance sheet of a business aircraft. It was logical that Dassault Aviation took on

the responsibility of the Eco-Design ITD.

The objectives of Dassault Aviation’s activities were:

• Development of ‘ecolonomical’ materials and manufacturing processes to satisfy regulations for noxious substances such as the European regulation REACH;

• Development of technologies enabling the extension of life duration of airframes and the set-up of ‘as clean as possible’ maintenance operations, particularly to efficiently repair composite parts;

• Development of technologies and related architectures allowing the transition towards more electrical aircraft by replacing hydraulic power today delivered by a fluid to actuators by electrical power, leading to a reduction of noxious substances during purges;

• Development of technologies for an environmentally respectful dismantling and leading to the highest possible recycling rates of materials.

A first major achievement was linked to the demonstrations of the whole life of a low weight green metallic fuselage section based on AL-Mg-Li alloy and a mid-cabin cabinet based on bio-fibres and resins. These two demonstrations were complemented by a series of developments which find a direct application in Dassault Aviation manufacturing sites: greener surface treatment, replacement of chemicals by mechanical machining, compaction of chips...

A second achievement was the first validation of a design methodology of more electrical aircraft architectures brought by an extensive set of tests performed on the Copper Bird® electrical test bench, operated by Safran in Colombes, France. This activity has been complemented by the improvement of thermal prediction in the aircraft assessed by comprehensive evaluation of scale 1 sections of aircraft tested in the Thermal Test Bench of Fraunhofer Institute located in Holzkirchen, Germany. These outputs pave the way towards the development of a more electrical Falcon in the future.


EMERGING ECO-COMPLIANCE POLICY IN AERONAUTICS

There is a worldwide demand for more efficient products to reduce energy and resource

consumption. The European Union has a long-standing tradition in promoting innovation in energy and environmental issues.

Back in 2003, the Commission’s communication ‘Integrated Product Policy — Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking’ aimed to reduce the environmental impacts of products across the whole of their life cycle, including in the selection and use of raw materials, in manufacturing, packaging, transport and distribution, installation and maintenance, use and end-of-life.

The EU legislation on Eco-Design and energy labelling was an effective tool for improving the energy efficiency of products. It helps eliminate badly-performing products from the market, significantly contributing to the EU’s 2020 energy efficiency objective. It also supports industrial competitiveness and innovation by promoting the better environmental performance of products throughout the Internal Market.

The March 2014 European Council and the Energy Union strategy, adopted in February 2015, stressed “the role of cleantech as a cross-cutting element

for enhancing the competitiveness of EU industry”. With the right overall strategy it will be possible to support EU leadership in competitive low-emissions solutions, improve our quality of life and create jobs and growth.

Research, innovation and competitiveness are paramount in addressing the climate challenge, accelerating the EU energy transition, and reaping benefits in terms of jobs and growth that the Energy Union can bring.

Air Transport has a prominent role, because of its proactivity as well as commitment from leading European integrators, who are an example for the whole sector. EU-funded air transport research has paved the way since 2005, with projects like PAMELA - Process for Advanced Management of End of Life of Aircraft2. Led by Airbus, this project demonstrated the possibility of recycling up to 85% of plane components, a significant advance on the earlier rate of 60%. It also showed that the implementation of an end-of-life aircraft management platform is of major economic and social interest for Europe.

More recently, within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research

and Innovation, the Clean Sky Eco-Design ITD coordinates research towards high eco-compliance in air vehicles over their product life. Eco-Design is a transverse activity within Clean Sky 2 and focuses on materials, processes and resources.

In fact, the EU aeronautics research programmes (such as Clean Sky and SESAR), together with research conducted under the Public Private Partnerships on Factories of the Future and Fuel Cells and Hydrogen, contribute substantially to Europe’s Flightpath 2050 and the relevant energy saving and environmental targets.

The European Commission fully supports and endorses the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE) Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, where recycling processes, repair strategies with improved environmental footprint, and energy reduction along the manufacturing processes are top priorities for European aeronautics research.

Disclaimer: This document is a European Commission staff working document for information purposes. It does not represent an official position of the Commission on this issue, nor does it anticipate such a position.

European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, Air Transport


As part of Clean Sky’s Eco-Design ITD, the IRIDA project was launched to investigate

the potential of liquid resin infusion (LRI) in conjunction with self-heating mould tools as an environmentally-friendly substitute to prepreg autoclave technology.

Autoclave consolidation of pre-impregnated fibres (prepreg) has become common practice in the production of aeronautical structures. While the part quality achieved is very high, two autoclave-inherent disadvantages are now becoming increasingly important to manufactures: long cycle times and high energy consumption. Currently the industry is looking into Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) alternatives in order to cut down both costs and the environmental footprint.

Research objectiveThe key objective was to accomplish fast and cost-efficient production while assuring reliably repeatable part quality through advanced monitoring and control systems.

The research agenda covered the following aspects:

• Durability studies and material selection for the 180°C mould tool

• Application of numerical tools for electro-thermal analysis and the simulation of the infusion process

• Development of an infusion and curing strategy for one-shot infusion of shell and internal stiffening (I-, U- and C-beams)

• Design and production of a prototype mould tool for an engine nacelle component

• Production of a demonstration part

• Assessment of part quality

Technology approachAutoclave curing requires a lot of energy and time to heat, pressurise and cool down - making it the bottleneck in series-production - owing to the thermal capacity of the heavy mould tools that are required to withstand the high pressure inside the autoclave. Instead of heating the air inside an autoclave chamber that in turn heats a heavy mould tool, the approach of the IRIDA project was to create heating directly (and only) where it is needed.

Combining the aspects of carbon fibre tooling and in-situ heating, the fibretemp® technology was selected for IRIDA. Fibretemp® utilises the electric conductivity of structural carbon fibre weaves to create an absolutely homogeneous heating field directly at the mould tool surface.

Research outcomeIRIDA showed that the combination of the fibretemp® technology with state-of-the-art temperature control systems and curing monitoring offers a cost-effective, green alternative to autoclave technology that is ready for production of aeronautical structures. Cycle times and energy consumption of the established technology have proven to be substantially lower compared to autoclave technology.

Vast progress was made regarding the infusion set-up for dry stacked internal stiffeners along with the shell laminate. Multiple temperature zones and mould tool add-ons were shown to be effective means in achieving precise temperature control and uniform curing of both shell and internal stiffening.

Jens Brandes, CEO, Fibretech

IRIDA PROJECT Environmentally-friendly substitute to conventional composite forming


The main objective of MAGNOLYA project was the development of new eco-friendly

chemical conversion technologies as an alternative to Cr(VI)-based coatings, which provide excellent corrosion protection but present health and environmental hazards. The aim was the protection of Mg cast alloy EV31A used in the fabrication of helicopter transmission components, as required by AgustaWestland, and the validation over other Mg alloys, thus fulfilling the demands of the aerospace industry.

The work at TECNALIA was carried out starting from a proprietary process, which was optimised in order to improve the corrosion resistance of the coating through the following steps:

• Selection of substrate pre-treatment, as it affects the performance of the whole system.

• Incorporation of additives to the base conversion treatment in order to include self-healing capabilities.

• Adjustment of operation conditions (pH, dipping time, temperature, etc.) and concentration of additives.

The optimisation process has led to the selection of the two best treatments in order to improve the corrosion protection. The laboratory process was scaled-up in a 20-L pilot plant at TECNALIA, for the production of samples in Mg alloys EV31A, AZ91 and AM60.

In parallel, PROMET has tested potassium permanganate in alkaline or slightly acidic media, as well as salts of metals close to chrome in the periodic table of elements. Cr(III) has also been assessed, as it is not as toxic as Cr(VI), although its oxidising character is much lower. The treatments selected for further testing were an alkaline permanganate-based conversion coating and a Cr(III)-based commercial product (Surtec 650).

After the newly-developed treatment, the samples were coated with chromium-free primer and resin, according to AgustaWestland´s requirements.

The painted specimens were tested in terms of appearance, composition and morphology, resin and primer adhesion, mild environmental and salt spray corrosion resistance and chemical resistance. All requirements for the testing procedures were set and validated by AgustaWestland, in agreement with the main standards and regulations of the aeronautic industry.

The samples from TECNALIA showed a remarkable corrosion resistance, comparable or superior to the Cr-Mn reference samples.

The MAGNOLYA conversion coating can be applied in a broad range of fields such as aerospace and automotive sectors. The process is suitable for the protection of any element or piece manufactured in magnesium, e.g. transmission gears for helicopters, engine blocks, engine cradle or roof frame for luxury automotive vehicles.

TECNALIA´s MAGNOLYA treatment has a European patent application pending (EP14382173).

MAGNOLYA PROJECTThe environmental way to protect from corrosion

Usoa Izagirre, MAGNOLYA manager Fabiola Brusciotti PhD, MAGNOLYA scientific manager Ainhoa Unzurrunzaga, MAGNOLYA researcher

Skyline 19 | June 201610*ECO CFRP - Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer obtained through less energy-consumption processing

EXAMPLES OF ECO-DESIGN DEMONSTRATORS

Low-weight shelves for cockpit equipment

Main Door Hinge manufactured by additive manufacturing processing

Low-weight and eco-compliant fuselage panels

Polyurethan Resin for aircraft seats

Thermoplastic composite airframe panel

The Electrical Test Bench - to assess future more electrical

aircraft configurations

The Thermal Test Bench - to simulate and analyse real-life

thermal conditions inside an aircraft


Wing panels made out of autoclave ECO CFRP* process

Additive manufacturing titanium fan wheel for Environmental Control System

Inlet scroll made by ECO CFRP* process

ECO CFRP* made by liquid resin infusion for rear aircraft skin

Aileron made by ECO CFRP* process

© Dassault Aviation


ECO-DESIGN FOR AIRFRAME (EDA)

Jérôme LerySenior Project Manager, Future Falcon Technology, R&D and Advanced Business, Dassault Aviation

The Eco-Design for Airframe (EDA) part of this ITD was directly focused on ACARE’s

goal “to make substantial progress in reducing the environmental impact of the manufacture, maintenance and disposal of aircraft and related products.”

The above objective has been tackled by:

• Developing environmentally-sound (“green”) technologies in the fields of:

• Materials and processes for aircraft production and maintenance;

• End-of-life material identification and recycling.

• Providing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools with an associated aeronautic database to quantify the benefit brought by those new technologies.

The consortium which was in charge of carrying out the project was made up of 38 members and 86 partners from Calls for Proposals (24 members still active in 2015). This consortium worked together with an open-minded spirit, and, despite the fact that this project gathered some competitors, synergies and collaborations were always found, thus allowing challenges to be tackled successfully throughout the project’s duration. This is one of the great achievements of EDA.

Among others, two EDA challenges which were managed successfully should be emphasised here:

EDA started with more than 230 single technologies highlighted by the state-of-the-art survey performed at the beginning of the EDA project. The consortium managed to reduce the number of technologies to a manageable amount

made up of the most promising technologies. It highlighted synergies and collaboration areas between consortium members and successfully identified key topics to be tackled in each work package. In addition, EDA succeeded in structuring and organising the project in a way that has made possible the achievements obtained today.

Overall the consortium managed to carry out 25 Eco-Statements (ES) using the LCA methodology (including LCA tool and database specific to the aeronautic sector) built within the project. By comparing the environmental impact of reference parts including baseline technologies to demonstrator parts including EDA-developed technologies, the benefit brought by those new technologies was quantified.

The assessment phase in 2014-2015 has been very dense in terms of achievement in the EDA project:

• Demonstrator manufacturing and testing have been completed; airworthiness was considered via testing on demonstrators and on specimens/coupons prior to demonstration;

• ES have been performed for 23 EDA parts and 2 Green Rotorcraft (GRC6) parts (including EDA Material and Process technologies).

For the 25 parts assessed (ES focused on production and end-of-life), the decrease of GWP (Global Warming Potential, in kg CO2-eq.) and CO2 indicators is an average of 40%. For the resource consumption indicator (Abiotic Depletion fossil, or ADP fossil, in MJ), the decrease reaches 35%.

In some cases, ES results obtained in EDA might not show a reduction of the environmental

impacts. However, when considering the operational phase (addressed by Clean Sky’s Technology Evaluator), the corresponding demonstrator could show a weight saving and therefore the environmental footprint would show a significant improvement in term of fuel consumption saving.

When upscaling the results obtained at part level to aircraft level (on the basis of the analysis of various components representing the different aircraft modules, see picture below), the following LCA results are obtained when comparing the reference Business Jet (year 2000) to the conceptual Business Jet (year 2020).

For the Life Cycle phases production and end-of-life, a total reduction of 50% of Global Warming Potential (GWP) and a total reduction of 48% of Abiotic Depletion (ADP) fossil are achieved for the conceptual Business Jet compared to the reference Business Jet. The mass reduction of 1.45% provides only a small share to this high reduction. The environmental advantage of the conceptual Business Jet mainly comes from lower impacts during the production by using improved manufacturing processes with reduced energy consumption, fewer process steps and reduced use of harmful substances, together with improved end-of-life treatments with higher recycling rates.

≈80 EDA technologies at

TRL≥5

≈60 EDA technologies included in the CS-

AED database

≈-40% for GWP, ADP in average for the

25 Eco-Statements performed

≈50 EDA technologies included on

demonstrators

115 technologies studied in EDA

Main technological outcomes from the EDA project

Upscaling from part to complete aircraft

Reference Business Jet (year 2000) Conceptual Business Jet (year 2020)


ECO-DESIGN FOR SYSTEMS (EDS)

Olivier SavinSenior Project Manager, Systems Division, On-board Energy, Dassault Aviation

The overall objective of Eco-Design for Systems (EDS) was to make a significant

step towards the concept of the more/all-electric vehicle systems aircraft (More Electrical Aircraft - MEA). This concept is expected to bring significant benefits throughout the aircraft life cycle via the removal of noxious hydraulic fluids (improvement of maintenance operations and their environmental footprints) and the use of “on board power by wire” (reduction of fuel consumption through an efficient energy management).

In view of this objective, the major activities undertaken within EDS included:

• The development and validation of an aircraft design methodology and its associated tools for the optimisation of the integrated vehicle systems architecture at aircraft level.

The validation of these tools was based upon the use of:

• a large Electrical Test Bench (ETB), designed to allow for high voltage and high power electrical network tests, in a highly representative aircraft environment;

• a Thermal Test Bench (TTB), designed to perform flight representative thermal tests on actual aircraft fuselage parts.

• The development of a cornerstone knowledge basis on the MEA through the use of the ETB and TTB.

• The maturat ion of a few selected technologies dedicated to the MEA.

The EDS project generated high value results, in terms of both simulation capability and understanding of “real life” electrical and thermal behaviour of MEA systems.

In the frame of the common activities conducted by the entire EDS team, a complete simulation toolbox was developed, which includes:

• The Electrical Network Analysis Model (ENAM): this provides a capability to grasp the complex issues of load management and network quality, which are inherent to the use of a high power and high voltage electrical network founding any MEA architecture;

• The Thermal Modelling (ThM) tool: this allows for the thermal characterisation of the hot spots that a given MEA interior may be subjected to, due to the high electrical losses over the network.

• The Energy Management Model (EMM), coupled to the Advanced Project Analysis Model (APOM): these dual tools allow for a fine optimisation of the MEA architecture at aircraft level, by taking into account the energy efficiency and mass of all involved energy systems, along with their impact on the rest of the aircraft.

The validation of the ENAM and ThM tools was based on extensive electrical and thermal tests carried out on the ETB and the TTB.

The ETB was constructed on the basis of a so-called “generic” architecture which was defined to best embrace the commonalities between the electrical architectures of a business jet, a regional airplane and a rotorcraft. The intent was for the ETB to capture all the issues inherent to the electrical behaviour of an MEA.

Extensive test campaigns were carried out on the ETB and generated a tremendous amount of high-value data. This resulted in a significant gain of knowledge on the MEA concept and allowed for the validation of the ENAM tool.

The TTB was designed to house the integration of three of Dassault Aviation’s Falcon fuselage sections (cockpit, cabin and rear parts), and to provide highly flight-representative thermal conditions, both inside and outside the sections. An additional module, the AirCraft Calorimeter (ACC), was designed to study extreme environmental conditions including thermal shocks and rapid decompressions.

A large number of thermal tests were conducted on the fuselage parts and on the ACC, with the objective to correlate the results with the outcomes of the simulations. This exercise successfully led to the validation of the thermal modelling tool, which may now serve as a core structure for the elaboration of an overall thermal model for any given aircraft.

Based on all the experimental and simulation-based insight which emerged from these activities, an evaluation of the benefits of the MEA concept applied to the business jet was performed. Various systems architectures were defined and thoroughly analysed. Trade-offs were conducted and we ended up with a highlight of those architectures which exhibited the best potential benefits, when compared to the conventional hydraulic-based architectures.

As initially hoped, the project helped take a significant step forward towards the concretisation of the MEA concept.


The annual Clean Sky Forum ‘Innovative European aeronautics powering a stronger

EU’ took place on 4 April in Brussels. It focused on three main areas of interest within Clean Sky: research centres and academia as a source of innovation; newcomers in Clean Sky 2; and Synergies with regional Structural Funds. Over 230 participants attended the Forum, including many Clean Sky Members and Partners as well as aeronautics’ stakeholders and representatives from the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Richard Parker, Chair of the Clean Sky Governing Board and Director of Research and Technology of Rolls-Royce, and Eric Dautriat, Clean Sky’s Executive Director, set the scene and elaborated on the progress achieved in both Clean Sky

and Clean Sky 2 programmes. MEP Monika Hohlmeier, Chair of the Sky & Space Intergroup of the European Parliament, gave a keynote address that focused on aeronautics as a sector of excellence and global competition.

The first session presented research centres and academia as an essential source of Clean Sky innovations and discussed different ways to enhance and ‘energise’ their participation. The Clean Sky Academy initiative was also highlighted. The panellists discussed bottom-up research in Clean Sky, the added value of partnerships, and how to encourage young researchers and collaborative research.

The second panel focused on ‘Newcomers in Clean Sky 2: widening and deepening participation’, and gave the floor to both

experienced Clean Sky participants and newcomers to Clean Sky 2 such as the Portuguese SME TEKEVER. The European Parliament was represented by MEP Martina Dlabajová. They discussed Clean Sky 2’s Calls and the role of newcomers in the programme, and how to leverage their participation to the best effect. The importance of encouraging participation in order to boost growth in the European economy was also highlighted.

The third session was dedicated to Clean Sky’s Synergies with Structural Funds and how the fostering of these synergies can maximise the quantity and quality of investments, thus ensuring a high impact of the Funds. Speakers included representatives of some of the Regions who have signed Memoranda of Understanding

CLEAN SKY FORUM 2016

Maria-Fernanda FauAdvocacy and Communications Manager, Clean Sky

Clean Sky Forum gathered more than 200 participants

Opening speech by Ric Parker

Best Clean Sky Project 2016 winners

Closing remarks by Eric Dautriat

MEP Monika Hohlmeier


ENVIRONMENTAL & RESOURCE ASSESSMENT IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRYRobert IlgProject Coordinator, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP

Environmental and resource related questions are becoming more and more

relevant in today’s society and day-to-day business. This is also the case for the aviation sector, especially due to the long lifetime of aircraft, and choices made in design are often still in service several decades later. By assessing environmental impacts and resources the Clean Sky 1 programme expanded the awareness and database for various technologies in the aviation industry and launched a new era by quantifying environmental impacts of products and materials along the aviation supply chain.

Eco-Design is an approach which focuses on sustainability and life cycle thinking even in the design phase. The idea is to design a product in a way that minimises the environmental

impact over its entire life cycle. LCA is a key methodology for the Eco-Design approach, as it allows environmental impacts to be systematically quantified over a product’s life cycle. When taking into account environmental impacts in an early development phase, changes can be made at a lower cost compared to the implementation of changes in a later stage of the development process. This can only be done with the support of software tools, such as the ecoDESIGN® Tool ENDAMI that was developed within the Eco-Design for Airframe platform of Clean Sky’s Eco-Design ITD, in cooperation with the University of Stuttgart. The tool allows quick and user-friendly assessment of environmental impacts during product design and thereby contributes substantially to more sustainable aviation. The ENDAMI tool creates environmental data models based on the information that is given in the Bill of Materials (BOM), such as type of

material, weight, position in the aircraft and possibly manufacturing processes required. The ENDAMI tool allows for the modelling of complex parts with many components in a much shorter time. Following the analysis of different designs of modules or parts, results can be taken directly from the tool or exported to Excel or similar applications. The tool is unique in terms of offering an intuitive user-interface, easy accessibility and aviation-specific background data.

In Clean Sky 2, Eco-Design will be on the transversal scale, linking activities in this area across all SPDs. This means expanding and enhancing the database of the Clean Sky 1 programme by introducing new data on materials, technologies, processes and resources. Eco-Design activities will also

serve as a contact point for SPDs regarding sustainable issues and as a frontrunner in the aviation sector for Europe and worldwide for analysing and quantifying the environmental footprint of air transport. This will link with ACARE and the fulfilment of their environmental goals (CO2, NOx, and environmental impacts such as Global Warming etc.).

This will build the basis for an informed, sustainable decision-making, as well as offering support in designing sustainable aircrafts, and will thereby contribute to a more sustainable growth in the aviation sector.

Eco-Design is an approach which focuses on sustainability and life cycle thinking.

The Best Clean Sky Project 2016 Award

with Clean Sky over the past year, as well as MEP Christian Ehler and European Commission representative Katja Reppel. The discussion emphasised Clean Sky’s synergies with structural funds as a good example of investments in smart specialisations and sustainable growth of European regions.

The event finished on a high note with the award ceremony for the best Clean Sky Project from Associates and Partners. From 20 nominated projects from partners, three were selected as winners: 1st prize went to the SENTRY project, with GeT FuTuRe project and FLIP project taking 2nd and 3rd place respectively. You can find more information on the winning projects later in this magazine.


VIEWS OF THE AIRFRAMERS

LEAF helps the assessment of multi-criteria environmental data

Exploring new materials at a full scale

Eco-Design for Helicopters

Leonardo-Finmeccanica, through its Helicopters division, (manufacturing

and delivering AgustaWestland products) continues to invest in ecodesign technologies and processes to further reduce energy and resource consumption in the design, manufacturing and operation of rotorcraft. A recently-completed ecodesign initiative is Clean Sky’s Green RotorCraft (GRC) 6.3 project.

The GRC6.3 project demonstrated the viability of new corrosion protection treatments that will replace existing cadmium and chromate-based treatments, in compliance with the European REACh (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) legislation. The project has successfully extended the application of REACH compliant treatments on simple laboratory coupons to complex helicopter mechanical power transmission components. The technologies, developed with project partners Poeton and Atotech, will further contribute towards the low environmental impact of Leonardo-Finmeccanica’s helicopters.

Non-hazardous anti-corrosion treatments represent one element in company’s concerted effort to be at the forefront of ecodesign in the rotorcraft industry. Amongst other initiatives, the company is also actively involved in developing advanced composites materials (such as through Clean Sky GRC6.2), and additive layer manufacturing (through the Next Generation Civil Tiltrotor programme within Clean Sky 2). The advancements in technologies and manufacturing processes aim to improve the whole life-cycle impact of the rotorcraft of the future.

Airbus is a key player in Eco-Design technologies’ environmental evaluation which is part of the Clean Sky Eco-Design project. Eco-statements aimed to establish the environmental footprint of new technologies

applied to demonstrator parts. The objective was to show the environmental benefits of demonstrator parts using new innovative technologies compared to the reference parts. To do so, environmental data collection was a mandatory but extremely challenging step due to their number and variety: data associated with energy use, water consumption, emissions, materials use and many more were successfully collected and consolidated for more than 120 aerospace technologies. This was a great achievement as it filled the gap in commercial environmental databases, which so far have had limited coverage of aerospace specific technologies. Finally, the Aviation Environmental Database is a key success and the result will be extensively re-used in the future (in Clean Sky 2, for example).

Evaluation tools enable this exploitation of data. In the Eco-Design for Airframe (EDA) project, Deloitte and Airbus developed a user-friendly tool called LEAF, which simplifies the assessment of multi-criteria environmental data in a robust manner.

Based on more than 10 years of experience in conducting environmental evaluations on aircraft parts, Airbus’s contribution to the project was mainly focused on driving the eco-statement performance work towards a pragmatic approach and oriented on business needs, from data collection phase to results exploitation.

Leonardo Aeronautical Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi) joined the Clean Sky programme to contribute to the implementation of the sustainable innovation concept. The technology development activity has

been focused on developing and demonstrating solutions capable of ensuring continued performance and competiveness, while using greener solutions to contribute to the reduction of its environmental impact across the life cycle of the aircraft.

As part of this effort, their contribution to Eco-Design has focused on solutions enabling components production with optimal use of raw materials and energies, avoidance of hazardous materials, and the reduction of non-renewable energy consumption of on-board systems.

Within the Eco-Design for Airframe (EDA) project, the possibility to produce a full-scale component (upper panel of the wing box) through a Liquid Resin Infusion process has been explored, thus reducing the material waste, using less energy (compared to the pre-preg technologies) and recycling the cured composite materials through a process handling CFRP scraps and end of life aircraft parts.

The solutions to reduce non-renewable energy consumption of on-board systems and to avoid the use of hazardous hydraulic fluid have been matured in Eco-Design for Systems (EDS). This goal has been pursued through exploiting the “all-electric aircraft” concept which, by using the “power by wire” architecture, improves the efficiency of energy usage and allows for the elimination of the hydraulic circuits currently used to operate several aircraft systems. Beside system architecture studies, the technological development has focused on the maturation of the Advanced Electrical Power Generation and Distribution System (A-EPGDS), a key enabler for the future aircraft architecture.


The aviation industry is a key element of transportation and a strong force for

economic growth due to its abilities to cover long distances in a short time. Due to the expected global growth in the aviation sector – traffic growth of 5% per year and a need for 30,000 new aircraft with the exchange of the existing fleet - new aircraft concepts will play an important role in air transportation for the future. Therefore the need for Eco-Design and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the aviation sector is inevitable.

Eco-Design can deliver key benefits in materials, processes and resources impacts and will have a strong relevance both in the Flight Path 2050 and in the HORIZON 2020 programme. This goes well beyond full green recyclability and pristine life cycle guidance: Eco-Design serves as a synergy and motivator for partnership in new business strengths, in the aeronautics manufacturing base of excellence, in new supply chain services interactions, and in advanced material cycles, and opens synergies with the next innovative technology streams.

Industry and politics need to know which environmental impacts (and what amount) occur in which life cycle stage. The European Commission and the aviation industry identified this challenge and in response launched Clean Sky and its continuation, Clean Sky 2.

In Clean Sky 2, Eco-Design is not related to a specific ITD/IADP but is a Transverse Activity: this offers the possibility for an optimal implementation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The combination in a holistic Transverse Activity within Clean Sky 2 means that Eco-Design will be a part of every ITD and IADP. This represents the basis that airplanes are complex product systems depending on different supply chains, high-grade and specific materials as well as specially customised processing technologies for their part production.

Eco-Design objectives in Clean Sky 2

• To guide the Clean Sky 2 consortium in Eco-Design activity in a transversal and synergic way, managing and coordinating the actions

• To expand and enhance the database of Clean Sky 1 by introducing data on materials, technologies, processes and resources

• To serve as a contact point for ITDs and IADPs regarding environmental or sustainable issues

• To create customised LCA models for current and future aircraft, covering production, operation, maintenance and end of life

• To serve as a frontrunner in the aviation sector for Europe and worldwide for analysing and quantifying the environmental footprint of air transport

• To establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to monitor achievements

The Eco-Design Transverse Activity is geared toward compliance on quality, repeatability, and recommendations for ecological and economic improvements. All ITDs and IADPs will potentially interact with the Eco-Design coordination GAM (ecoTA).

In the ITDs and IADPs technologies with clear TRL development path and demonstration objectives will be developed considering different and specific drivers. On this basis, data regarding Eco-relevant activities and technology development, MPR (Material Processes and Resources, for example BOM/BOPs - Bill of Material & Bill of Processes), will be delivered to ecoTA in a suitable format for further data processing. In ecoTA the data will analysed for defining current environmental impact: by tracking these data over the duration of the project, it will be possible to assess future environmental trends of the technologies under consideration and further optimise the environmental impacts of the work performed in the ITDs/IADPs.

WHAT FOR ECO-DESIGN IN CLEAN SKY 2?

Paolo TrinchieriEco-Design Project Officer, Clean Sky Rainer Schweppe Environmental Engineering, Fraunhofer ICT


Sixto Arnaiz Director of the Environment and Recycling Area, GAIKER Technology Centre

Background and objectivesThe sustainable development, essentially associated with a balanced use of resources and reduction of waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions, is already a demand in any sector of activity. In the aeronautic sector, enormous efforts are being made to improve engine performance, by searching for more durable structures or introducing renewable raw materials and energy sources. This gave us the idea for the SENTRY Project (SustainablE DismaNTling and RecYcling of Metallic Aerostructures), realised within Clean Sky’s Eco-Design ITD.

The project aims to define dismantling and recycling treatments for new metallic aerostructures with the least environmental impact, in order to maximise the potential reuse of recovered materials (mainly metals). Several specific objectives have been established:

• To analyse the limitations and barriers of the current recycling processes with the aim of recovering high quality aluminium alloys from aircraft parts.

• To propose an optimised End of Life (EoL) procedure for the different metallic fuselage panels.

• To perform live demonstrations of the proposed dismantling and recycling schemes.

• To assess the environmental impacts related to the current EoL and the new EoL scenarios, and to identify the steps or operations with heavy environmental impacts.

• To maximise the valorisation of new light aluminium alloys and to propose eco-design solutions to optimise the environmental performance of fuselage panel at their EoL phase.

A significant output of the project is the design of “low weight green fuselage sections”, made of new light metallic alloys which incorporate in their surfaces new hexavalent chromium-free coatings, aimed at lowering fuel consumption during the use phase. However, like the traditional aluminium parts, the new ones should be recycled when they reach the EoL. The need to adapt current EoL aircraft management activities to the presence of new parts and materials is the origin of the SENTRY Project.

Activities and resultsThree different panels, manufactured within EDA’s activities, were studied:

• Reference Panel, mainly made of aluminium Alloy 2024 and Alloy 7050

• B2 Demonstrator Panel-A, mainly made of new aluminium lithium alloys (Al-Cu-Li)

• B2 Demonstrator Panel-B, mainly made of new aluminium lithium alloys (Al-Mg-Li)

The project activities focused on assessing the EoL practices applied to metallic fuselage panels. For that, two different scenarios have been defined: the current EoL scenario for the Reference Panel and the new EoL scenario for the Reference Panel and the B2 Demonstrator Panels.

Firstly, the environmental assessment of current EoL for the Reference Panel has been modelled in order to set a baseline scenario, to quantify the environmental impacts and to identify key operations with a strong environmental impact.

In parallel, the new EoL scenario proposed for the Reference Panel and the B2 Demonstrator Panels has been tested. This has resulted in three live recycling demonstrations where the panels have been dismantled, their parts classified by alloy type, and the conventional and light lithium aluminium alloys de-coated and re-melted. During these live demonstrations, data have been collected regarding usage of equipment or tools, operation times, consumptions, input and output materials and waste generated. The characterisation of the recovered aluminium alloys has been carried out by chemical and metallographic analysis, with the aim of checking for the absence of any contamination or inclusions/oxides, and therefore validating alloy quality.

The environmental profile of the new EoL scenario has been assessed following the LCA methodology already set for current EoL and the steps with heavy environmental impacts have been identified. Regarding the results obtained for new EoL, the environmental profile of the panels is highly influenced by the energy consumed during the EoL steps, the yield of the EoL operations, the final quality and value of the recovered alloys, and the environmental impact of the alloy manufacturing. Finally, a comparative assessment has identified the environmental benefits and drawbacks of the new EoL scenario as well as the influence of the panel design and structure in the new EoL stages.

ConclusionsThe SENTRY project has demonstrated the technical feasibility and the environmental benefits of a new End of Life scenario for metallic

fuselage panels, based on selective dismantling and recycling operations. The new EoL enables the recovery of high-quality aluminium alloys with a maximum potential reuse, avoiding the down-cycling and promoting proper and efficient sorting and conditioning techniques.

The SENTRY project was awarded first prize in the “Best Clean Sky Project” Awards, from 21 candidate projects, at the Clean Sky Forum 2016.

THE SENTRY PROJECT Dismantling and recycling with the minimum environmental impact

Best

Clean Sky

Project 2016

The SENTRY Project (SustainablE DismaNTling and RecYcling of Metallic Aerostructures) is an initiative led by the Technological Centre GAIKER-IK4 in consortium with the Technological Centres IK4-LORTEK and IK4-AZTERLAN and with the participation of the companies Dassault Aviation, AELS, Constellium and IAI. The project was developed within the Eco-Design for Airframe platform (EDA) of Clean Sky’s Eco-Design ITD. The project lasted 18 months, ending in September 2015, and had a budget of €300,000.


The geared engine represents one of the most promising architectural innovations in the

aeronautical market. The concept involves the mechanical uncoupling of the turbine from the fan by adding to the system a further degree of freedom with the introduction of a Power GearBox (PGB). The performance improvement of both the turbine and the fan increases the whole engine’s efficiency, with a reduction of fuel consumption and polluting exhaust.

In the frame of SAGE4 (a work package under Clean Sky’s Systems and Green Engines ITD), the GeT FuTuRe (The Gear Turbo Fan Test Rig (GTFTR) project) project aimed to perform a validation of a PGB developed by Avio Aero on a purposely-designed full-scale rig. The testing conditions for the PGB have to accurately reproduce sophisticated and distinctive interfaces (mechanical, fluidic and functional) with the engine. As a consequence, the rig has been designed to provide mechanical connections similar to the real installation, and the

tests can be programmed in order to apply the effective time history of the parameters (speed, load, lubricant flow-rate and temperature) and to control the PGB behaviour during the test, for instance measuring its efficiency.

The approach adopted for the research project is innovative. In the framework of Clean Sky, Avio Aero opened the collaboration with external partners in the delicate phase of the technological validation of a strategic product, an activity that for a producer is generally considered very close to the design.

The test rig has been procured and assembled with two PGBs, one of them equipped by Avio Aero with a dedicated instrumentation. The commissioning is now complete and preliminary tests are running. In parallel, a new Test Facility has been built and made available by the University of Pisa for the rig installation. This achievement is the result of a different research project co-financed by the Tuscany Region.

The GeT FuTuRe project won third prize in the Clean Sky ‘Best Projects from Partners’ Awards at the Clean Sky Forum in April 2016.

A tool to meet major environmental and economic challengesThe Toulouse-based company ORME, in partnership with ATMOSPHERE, helped optimise the Thales Avionics future Flight Management System (FMS) by developing a realistic test platform and thus improving trajectory optimisation to reduce CO2 emissions and increase aircraft performance. The test software FLIP (Automatic FLIght Plan management tool) provides a means to define criteria to select real flight plans, put them into the FMS, create new flight plans, and modify them if necessary for testing purposes.

“The FMS is a critical on-board software product embedded in the aircraft, which computes its trajectory based on the flight plan entered by the pilot (departure and arrival locations, waypoints…), take-off and approach constraints,

and routes. All data is transmitted to the aircraft’s autopilot for flight guidance.

We had to collect more than 300,000 real-world flight plans to create the testing software FLIP; otherwise we would not have reached that level of coverage. Flight plans form the basis for flight operations management; and we needed various scenarios to deliver a reliable tool taking into account real-world conditions.

Thanks to these research works, we took part in the enhancement of the trajectories of the aircrafts to make them more efficient. By contributing to the validation of the aircraft trajectory enhancement functions, we are reducing fuel consumption (fewer flight hours) and we are limiting CO2 emissions. The environmental and economic benefits are significant for the industry,” stated ORME’s CEO Luc Oriat.

Gilles Poussin, Clean Sky Programme Manager at Thales, points out that FLIP enriches the existing test systems that allow the new FMS features to reach an adequate level of maturity. By automatically testing these features against realistic flight plans, FLIP helps detect the defects which must be fixed during the development phase to accelerate progress.

Third place in the Clean Sky Awards and a second phase for the projectThe FLIP project won third prize in Clean Sky’s Best Project from Partners Awards, held in Brussels on 4 April 2016.

ORME is still investing in this project and has just submitted a new proposal to the Midi-Pyrénées Regional Council and European Commission for support of a second phase of the project.

THE GET FUTURE PROJECTEfficient testing for new Power GearBox

Marco BeghiniScientific Coordinator, GeTFuTRe project

THE FLIP PROJECT An innovative software platform for testing future Flight Management System Nicolas VERBEKE, R&D engineer, ORME

Best

Clean Sky

Project 2016

Best

Clean Sky

Project 2016

The GeT FuTuRe consortium is made up of:

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering of the University of Pisa - a centre of excellence, with high level scientific competences, in advanced mechanical power transmissions;

AM Testing srl - a group under the University of Pisa whose core business is the design of high-performance test rigs and the execution of complex test campaigns on components and systems;

Catarsi Ing. Piero & c. srl - a company leader in the manufacturing of precision mechanical devices, equipped with the most innovative production systems and controlling and measuring machines.


4th Call for Proposals for Clean Sky 2

The 4th Call for Proposals for Clean Sky 2 is now launched. It contains 63 topics and has an indicative funding of over €54 million. Topics are spread among the different ITDs and IADPs following the work plan of the programme. The topics proposed are both Research Innovative Actions and Innovative Actions.

www.cleansky.eu

Copyright 2016 - Clean Sky JU - BelgiumWhite Atrium, 4th floor, Av. de la Toison d’Or, 56-60 1060 Brussels w

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.eu-

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Upcoming events

Greener Aviation conference: 11-13 October 2016

The ‘Greener Aviation: Clean Sky breakthroughs and worldwide status’ conference will take place on 11-13 October 2016 in Brussels. The newest worldwide innovations for improving aviation’s environmental footprint will be presented. The call for papers is open until 15 June.

www.cleansky.eu

Find us on :Executive Director : Eric DautriatEditor: Maria-Fernanda Fau, Advocacy and Communications Manager

The Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking receives funding under the Horizon 2020 Programme for research and Innovation.

Views expressed in this publication do not represent any official position but only those of its author.

Clean Sky featured at ILA Berlin on 1 June 2016 with a conference titled ‘The Science powering

Clean Sky’. Around 100 people attended the event, which also included the inaugural ‘Clean Sky Best PhD Awards’.

The conference opened with a welcome address from Clara de la Torre, Director of DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission. The focus was on science and research as essential parts of Clean Sky’s activities and highlighted how universities and research organisations help develop technologies from ideas to reality. Other speakers were Ric Parker, Chair of the Clean Sky Governing Board; Peter Hecker, Chair of Clean Sky Scientific Committee; Hannes Krieg, Project Manager, University of Stuttgart; Ron van Manen, Clean Sky 2 Programme Manager; Rolf Henke, ACARE

Chairman, Member of the Executive Board for aeronautics research, DLR; and Jean-Francois Brouckaert, Clean Sky Project Officer.

The conference finished with a celebration of outstanding young researchers in the Best Clean Sky PhD Award ceremony. First prize was awarded to Tao Yang (University of Nottingham) for his thesis ‘Development of Dynamic Phasors for the Modelling of Aircraft Electrical Power Systems’. Silver and bronze went respectively to Beniamino Guido (Second University of Naples) and Simon Colliss (University of Cambridge). Francesco Grasso, Chair of Aero Technical Institute, CNAM, then rounded up the awards with a presentation highlighting the importance of young researchers to the future of Clean Sky and aeronautics in general.

CLEAN SKY AT ILA BERLIN

Clean Sky Best PhD Winners 2016

special edition eco-design · products into the market. the extensive use of novel-developed lca...

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