A Preliminary Design Framework for Performance and Noise Assessment of Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

This work describes a multidisciplinary framework proposed for the preliminary design assessment of urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, which includes estimations of vehicle per- formance and acoustic emissions. Established analytical and semi-empirical methods for aircraft design and performance are combined with estimations of tonal and broadband noise components from the multi-propeller system. The estimation of the tonal components is based on steady blade loading and thickness noise, while the estimation of the broadband compo- nent considers trailing-edge scattering of each isolated propeller. Two design architectures, specifically multicopters and tilted open rotors, are assessed in this investigation. The estimated performance and noise emissions are demonstrated and compared against the available data of existing vehicles. Subsequently, a design exploration is conducted, where key performance parameters are varied and their impact on the vehicle performance, estimated cost, power consumption, and noise emissions are evaluated. The results stress the suitability of each configuration for urban air mobility, along with the operating conditions under which each architecture performs optimally. Multicopter vehicles are lighter for small ranges and speeds and, therefore, are the optimal choice for short distances. The lower MTOM also yields lower noise emissions in takeoff and landing, facilitating integration in populated urban environments. Tiltrotors have greater efficiency at high cruise speeds and, at larger ranges, demonstrate more efficient operations and, consequently, lower noise emissions, more suitable for inter-city and large commuting distances.