Integration of Twenty-Bladed Cross-Flow Fan into Vertical Take-Off and Landing Aircraft.

摘要

The research presented is dedicated to determining an efficient rotor and housing system that will generate a sufficient thrust-to-weight ratio for vertical take-off and landing through computational modeling, implementation and experimentation. To accomplish this task, a new 20-bladed rotor was designed in SolidWorks and imported into ANSYS-CFX, which was used to analytically determine the thrust generated at speeds ranging from 4,000 rpm to 10,000 rpm. Upon successful simulation, a carbon-fiber model was fabricated and tested at speeds from 4,000 rpm to 9,700 rpm. With a promising thrust-to-weight ratio, a platform was built for initial testing utilizing two motors and four cross-flow fans. Initial platform testing was successful and generated sufficient thrust for vertical take-off.