AeroDelft Builds a Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft with CFD in the Cloud

22 Sep 2022 • 1 minute read

aerodelft hydrogen powered aircraft

AeroDelft is a student-led team from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) with one mission: developing the world’s first liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft. Because liquid hydrogen is a cleaner alternative to conventional aviation fuel, AeroDelft sees it as the key to a future with sustainable aviation, and they’re making it a reality with Cadence tools.

Their undertaking, Project Phoenix, involves designing, manufacturing, and finally flying a 1:3 scale prototype and a full-scale aircraft, both powered by hydrogen. Their prototype is powered by an electric motor on its tail and can fly for seven hours with just 1kg of liquid hydrogen, covering a distance of more than 500km. These numbers are unmatched by batteries and conventional fuels.

The team uses Cadence Fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to study the impact of changes to the original design of the aircraft. First, the original CAD geometry file needed to be adapted for use in a CFD environment, as many surfaces were not closed or of good quality. This is where was of great use in replacing tedious manual work. The software delivers quality meshes ready for CFD analysis in near real-time.

View of plane with buildings

Since hydrogen can be dangerous if not handled properly, it’s imperative that their system has safety measures built in. In the case of over-pressurization in the hydrogen tank, hydrogen is vented out in the atmosphere. AeroDelft uses Fidelity CFD to investigate the risk of hydrogen ignition at high release pressures and has been pushing the software to its limits.

Fidelity CFD is a streamlined CFD workflow for design and multi-disciplinary analysis, which offers quick and smart solutions in one single environment. Along with Fidelity CFD, AeroDelft has been using the Cadence OnCloud server for their simulations, which Francesco Granata, one of the engineers at AeroDelft, described as a “game-changer” for them because of its user-friendliness and responsiveness.

“Designed with Cadence” is a series of videos that showcases creative products and technologies that are accelerating industry innovation using Cadence tools and solutions. Our latest video shows how Cadence’s cutting-edge technology helps AeroDelft take to the skies.

For more Designed with Cadence videos, check out the Cadence website and YouTube channel.

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