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US 12,366,211 B2Granted
Aircraft contrail monitoring and targeted mitigation
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorRussell Stratton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system is provided for an aircraft. This aircraft system includes an aircraft powerplant, a powerplant sensor system, an environment sensor system and a monitoring system. The aircraft powerplant includes a heat engine. The powerplant sensor system is configured to provide engine data indicative of one or more operating parameters of the heat engine. The environment sensor system is configured to provide environment data indicative of one or more environmental parameters of an environment in which the heat engine is operating. The monitoring system is configured to determine formation of a contrail and quantify an impact of the contrail when formed based on the engine data and the environment data.
Claims18
A system for an aircraft, comprising:
- an aircraft powerplant comprising a heat engine configured to combust fuel within a combustion zone and exhaust combustion products of combusted fuel into an environment;
- a powerplant sensor system including at least one powerplant sensor configured to provide engine data indicative of one or more operating parameters of the heat engine, and the one or more operating parameters comprises an exhaust mass flow of the heat engine;
- an environment sensor system including at least one environmental sensor configured to provide environment data indicative of one or more environmental parameters of the environment in which the heat engine is operating;
- and
- a monitoring system including at least one processing device and a memory, the monitoring system in signal communication with the powerplant sensor system and the environmental sensor system, the monitoring system configured to determine formation of a contrail based on the combustion products exhausted into the environment, the monitoring system configured to quantify an impact of the contrail when formed based on the engine data and the environment data;
- wherein the monitoring system is further configured to initiate a response when the impact of the contrail is greater than a threshold for greater than a predetermined duration, the response comprising an action to mitigate formation of the contrail;
- and
- wherein the response includes using a contrail suppression system to remove water vapor from the combustion products prior to exhausting the combustion products.
5 more elements
A system for an aircraft, comprising:
- an aircraft powerplant comprising a heat engine configured to combust a mixture of fuel and air within a combustion chamber and exhaust combustion products of the mixture into an environment;
- a monitoring system in communication with a plurality of optical sensors, the monitoring system configured to predict formation of a contrail in the environment based on the combustion products, the monitoring system configured to quantify an impact of the contrail based on real-time operating parameters of the heat engine and real-time environmental parameters of the environment, the real-time environmental parameters comprising radiation within the environment;
- a first of the plurality of optical sensors is facing upwards on the aircraft;
- a second of the plurality of optical sensors is facing downwards on the aircraft;
- and
- a user interface configured to receive a notification signal from the monitoring system and notify an operator of the aircraft powerplant to adjust an aircraft flight path when the quantified impact of the contrail is greater than a threshold for at least a predetermined duration;
- wherein the monitoring system is further configured to initiate a response when the impact of the contrail is greater than the threshold for greater than the predetermined duration, the response comprising an action to mitigate formation of the contrail;
- and
- wherein the response includes using a contrail suppression system to remove water vapor from the combustion products prior to exhausting the combustion products.
6 more elements
A method for operating an aircraft, comprising:
- combusting fuel within a combustion zone of a heat engine and subsequently exhausting combustion products generated by the combusting of the fuel into an environment through which the aircraft is flying;
- providing engine data indicative of one or more operating parameters of a heat engine, the engine data provided by at least one powerplant sensor in signal communication with the heat engine;
- providing environment data indicative of one or more environmental parameters of an environment through which the aircraft is flying, the environmental data provided by a plurality of environmental sensors, and the one or more environmental parameters comprise radiation within the environment, the one or more environmental parameters further comprising at least one of:
- an optical depth of cloud cover below the heat engine, or an optical depth of cloud cover above the heat engine;
- determining formation of a contrail based on the combustion products exhausted into the environment and quantifying an impact of the contrail based on the engine data and an effect of the contrail on the radiation within the environment;
- sending a notification signal to notify an operator of the aircraft when the quantified impact of the contrail is greater than a threshold for at least a predetermined duration;
- and
- adjusting an aircraft flight path in response to the notification signal to mitigate formation of the contrail.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.