Urban-Air Port Mitigating VTOL Downwash & Outwash
Technology Reveal - Summary
One of the biggest challenges eVTOL pose is the violent, unpredictable and hazardous speed & extent of their outwash. Urban-Air Port has invested in providing the answer.
We are excited to reveal how Urban-Air Port tackles the complex issues of eVTOL #downwash & #outwash with our Vertical Airfield and its built-in technology that mitigates the negative effects of downwash, to create a safer & more efficient operating environment at our vertiports & for our vertiport Clients.
The Urban-Air Port Approach - With Urban-Air Port Downwash/Outwash mitigating Technology included.
The below simulation shows how, uniquely, Urban-Air Port technology dramatically reduces the speed and extent of the downwash when an eVTOL is taking off or landing on our Vertical Airfield.
Scroll down and see the comparison to traditional solutions where Urban-Air Port technology is not deployed whether at-grade take off / landing or elevated. We believe a unique and sustainable new green tech transport solution - deserves, and in fact demands a complimentary infrastructure that provides it what it needs specifically, in order to integrate across our cities and airfields safely, cost effectively in order to maximise the opportunity they offer.
Real estate & construction is expensive, everywhere, so how do we minimise vertiport capex, but maximise the operational efficiency and return on investment - when aircraft turnaround times & capacity is restricted by eVTOL spatial, battery, and aerodynamic complexities & urban planning environmental challenges? Here’s how:
1.) "What we have found is that the Urban-Air Port Vertical Airfield elevated landing platform with its multi-patented design ameliorates >> significantly << both the lateral extent of the outwash below the aircraft as well as the speed of the outwards flow across the ground."
2.) "The action of the Urban-Air Port technology and design disrupts the formation of the vortical flow structures that, in the case of traditional airfield / ground planes, are responsible for the creation of “micro-cells” of elevated velocity that tend to propagate outwards into the flow which are the source of greatest upset to personnel, aircraft and infrastructure located nearby."
3.) "An important consideration is that the beneficial effects of the Urban-Air Port technology and design in terms of the outwash that is produced by the aircraft - do not come at the expense of an increase in the power consumed by the eVTOL while hovering over the surface". Richard Brown PhD, CEng FIMechE FRAeS
The Ground Based Approach - Without Urban-Air Port Downwash/Outwash mitigating Technology included.
Most vertiport designers / developers tend to defer to the incumbent heli-port approach, with traditional aviation planning, resulting in greater real estate requirements, increasing build & operational costs with a flat, infinite airfield where the outwash can propagate uninterrupted quite significantly, resulting in hazardous operating environments for the space around the eVTOL particularly the take off / landing FATO, taxi-ways and stands.
You can see the problem of typical ground-based vertiports where no Urban-Air Port technology is deployed and what happens to the eVTOL downwash and outwash in the simulation above.
- The landing surface below the aircraft is a flat, infinite airfield extending out in all directions.
- Allowing the extremely powerful, outwash vortical structures created by the aircraft to run out unimpeded across the vertiport grounds.
- Resulting in greater hazards to both to bystanders and to the vertiport infrastructure itself, if they become caught up in the flows that are created and unimpeded.
- More real estate is required, that is expensive but ultimately could result in vertiport sites simply not being viable due to initial build cost, health and safety and / or financially to operate.
All of this adds more cost, more risk whilst reducing vertiport throughput and therefore operational efficiency and capacity. Not ideal for high value sites where turnaround times will be key, nor for the business viability for the vertiport operator.
The Ground Based Approach with a small Passenger Building / Structure - Without Urban-Air Port Downwash/Outwash mitigating Technology included.
We also quite often see vertiport proponents rather naively and simplistically suggest that a cheaper more cost effective approach is to use a small passenger processing building in the form of a modified shipping container or porta-cabin. Whilst the small, often simplistic processing building will no doubt be less cost, it still requires a vast, flat, airfield for the eVTOL to land / take and for the associated taxi-ways & stands. In this case, we see the solution as being worse, as the proximity of the processing building to the operating eVTOL creates an alarmingly hazardous environment for pilot, aircraft, passengers, staff and infrastructure.
You can see the problem of typical ground-based vertiports with a processing building in close proximity at the same level to the operational eVTOL, in the above simulation.
- The presence of an "obstacle" on the ground plane disrupts the outwards progression across the ground plane of the eVTOL vortical structures.
- The powerful vortical structures tend to accumulate to the windward side of the small passenger building / cabin.
- Where the very real potential exists for them to coalesce into even larger structures with greater influence on the flow.
- Here the velocity of the outwash exceeds the induced velocity produced by the rotors - considerably.
- Where average velocities could reach 40m/s (!) Hurricane force winds.
- The level of unsteadiness within the flow between the aircraft and the building is dramatically amplified, feeding back into the aerodynamic lift / wake vorticity.
This unpredictability caused by proximity of vertiport processing building/s at grade results in a more hazardous operating environment, impacting negatively on operational efficiency, safety and ultimately profitability.
Contact us if you want to ensure your vertiport developments are viable - in the most cost effective and safest way possible. Our analysis is undertaken with world leading aerodynamicists and eVTOL designers & operators. Urban-Air Port has extensive data on this field and will reveal further insights in due course. (NOTE: Urban-Air Port can improve both ground based or elevated take off / landing FATOs for either existing or new vertiport operational environments).
