MYTHOS

Climate change is causing many people to board planes with a guilty conscience: emissions of harmful carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels are high. The international consortium of the “MYTHOS” project aims to develop aircraft engines that can make flexible use of various sustainably produced fuels, including pure hydrogen. The project called “Medium-range hybrid low-pollution flexi-fuel/hydrogen sustainable engine” will be funded by the European Union for four years starting on 1 January 2023. It’s coordinated by Professor Francesca di Mare, holder of the Chair of Thermal Turbomachinery and Aero Engines at Ruhr University Bochum.

The overall goal to which the project team is committed is nothing less than the decarbonisation of aviation. The goal is to develop and demonstrate a breakthrough design methodology for future short- and medium-range civil engines that can use a wide range of liquid and gaseous fuels and, ultimately, pure hydrogen. The fuels for which the engines will be designed include so-called sustainable aviation fuels, or SAF: sustainably produced fuels that are not based on fossil fuels.

Machine learning leads to reduced models

To achieve these goals, the MYTHOS consortium uses machine learning methods to develop a multidisciplinary modelling approach for the characterisation of the relevant engine components. A unique aspect of the project is the realistic experimental validation of the numerical approaches. With this approach, the MYTHOS consortium will help to shorten the time to market for engines suitable for various environmentally friendly fuels.