GREEN-by-GEARS

Decarbonisation and noise reduction with geared turbofan engines

Start: 01.11.2023 (Duration: 12 months)

Funded by the Take Off programme of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) with the funds of the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK)

 

Multi-disciplinary consortium:

 

Project description:

Turbine engines with planetary gear stages to reduce the speed of the fan stage have entered into the market (Pratt&Whitney Geared Turbofan GTF, application a.o. in Airbus A220/A320neo, Embraer E175-E2, E190-E2, E195-E2) respectively have reached a mature development stage (Rolls-Royce UltraFan). Turbine suppliers like Safran Aircraft Engines and General Electric Aerospace are also working on this technology. Engines with Geared Turbofans enable up to 20% reduction of fuel consumption and an enormous reduction of sound emissions. The reduced fuel consumption leads to drastically reduced operating costs and thus a rapidly growing number of aircraft use these engines. Together with the climate goals (Austria to be climate neutral in 2040) this technology is - compared with technologies like Electric Engines, Hydrogen engines and Fuel cells - more likely to bring a relevant contribution to decarbonization and sound emissions in the time frame given.
Against this background a consortium of TU Wien wants to systematically evaluate further potentials of engines with geared turbofans, independent from suppliers and 1st tiers, to establish networks that cover all disciplines from turbomachinery to gearbox technology and system design and to propose research projects to realise the identified potentials.