A bladeless fan, also known as an Air multiplier fan, is a fan that blows air from a ring or oval opening with no external blades. [1] Despite the name, these fans do have blades, mounted on a propeller hidden in the base.
The initial air stream slows down, in exchange for producing a new total flow with a much higher flow rate than the original (Dyson claims it's ~16x higher [2] ).
The buffeting of a conventional fan comes from their lower number of larger blades, which push air inconsistently across the air stream's cross section. This design mitigates this by collecting the full airflow of the small fan, "averaging out" any buffeting that would have otherwise happened.[ citation needed ]
The concept was created by Toshiba in 1981 and was later popularized by industrial designer James Dyson, who used the technique in a consumer fan introduced in 2009, calling it the Air Multiplier. [3] [4] It was included in Time's 50 Best Inventions of 2009 list. [5] The principle has been in use for a long time as an ejector or injector. [6]
When a fluid flows around an object, the fluid exerts a force on the object. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the force parallel to the flow direction. Lift conventionally acts in an upward direction in order to counter the force of gravity, but it is defined to act perpendicular to the flow and therefore can act in any direction.
A turbine is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical power when combined with a generator. A turbine is a turbomachine with at least one moving part called a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades so that they move and impart rotational energy to the rotor. Early turbine examples are windmills and waterwheels.
The Tesla turbine is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine invented by Nikola Tesla in 1913. Nozzles apply a moving fluid to the edges of a set of discs. The engine uses smooth discs rotating in a chamber to generate rotational movement due to the exchange of momentum between the fluid and the discs. The discs are arranged in an orientation similar to a stack of CDs on a pole.
Wind tunnels are machines where an object is held stationary inside a tube, and air is blown around it to study the interaction between the object and the moving air. They are used to test the aerodynamic effects of aircraft, rockets, cars, and buildings. Different wind tunnels range in size from less than a foot across, to over 100 feet (30 m), and can have air that moves at speeds from a light breeze to hypersonic velocities.
A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum, or a hoover, is a device that uses suction in order to remove dirt and other substances from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven.
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a combination of the preceding generation engine technology of the turbojet, and a reference to the additional fan stage added. It consists of a gas turbine engine which achieves mechanical energy from combustion, and a ducted fan that uses the mechanical energy from the gas turbine to force air rearwards. Thus, whereas all the air taken in by a turbojet passes through the combustion chamber and turbines, in a turbofan some of that air bypasses these components. A turbofan thus can be thought of as a turbojet being used to drive a ducted fan, with both of these contributing to the thrust.
The bypass ratio (BPR) of a turbofan engine is the ratio between the mass flow rate of the bypass stream to the mass flow rate entering the core. A 10:1 bypass ratio, for example, means that 10 kg of air passes through the bypass duct for every 1 kg of air passing through the core.
Blown flaps or jet flaps are powered aerodynamic high-lift devices used on the wings of certain aircraft to improve their low-speed flight characteristics. They use air blown through nozzles to shape the airflow over the rear edge of the wing, directing the flow downward to increase the lift coefficient. There are a variety of methods to achieve this airflow, most of which use jet exhaust or high-pressure air bled off of a jet engine's compressor and then redirected to follow the line of trailing-edge flaps.
Thrust reversal, also called reverse thrust, is the temporary diversion of an aircraft engine's thrust for it to act against the forward travel of the aircraft, providing deceleration. Thrust reverser systems are featured on many jet aircraft to help slow down just after touch-down, reducing wear on the brakes and enabling shorter landing distances. Such devices affect the aircraft significantly and are considered important for safe operations by airlines. There have been accidents involving thrust reversal systems, including fatal ones.
A ceiling fan is a fan mounted on the ceiling of a room or space, usually electrically powered, that uses hub-mounted rotating blades to circulate air. They cool people effectively by increasing air speed. Fans do not reduce air temperature or relative humidity, unlike air-conditioning equipment but create a cooling effect by helping to evaporate sweat and increase heat exchange via convection. Fans add a small amount of heat to the room mainly due to waste heat from the motor, and partially due to friction. Fans use significantly less power than air conditioning as cooling air is thermodynamically expensive. In the winter, fans move warmer air, which naturally rises, back down to occupants. This can affect both thermostat readings and occupants' comfort, thereby improving the energy efficiency of climate control. Many ceiling fan units also double as light fixtures, eliminating the need for separate overhead lights in a room.
A jet engine performs by converting fuel into thrust. How well it performs is an indication of what proportion of its fuel goes to waste. It transfers heat from burning fuel to air passing through the engine. In doing so it produces thrust work when propelling a vehicle but a lot of the fuel is wasted and only appears as heat. Propulsion engineers aim to minimize the degradation of fuel energy into unusable thermal energy. Increased emphasis on performance improvements for commercial airliners came in the 1970s from the rising cost of fuel.
Cable jetting is a technique to install cables in ducts. It is commonly used to install cables with optical fibers in underground polyethylene ducts and is an alternative to pulling.
A dust collector is a system used to enhance the quality of air released from industrial and commercial processes by collecting dust and other impurities from air or gas. Designed to handle high-volume dust loads, a dust collector system consists of a blower, dust filter, a filter-cleaning system, and a dust receptacle or dust removal system. It is distinguished from air purifiers, which use disposable filters to remove dust.
Unconventional wind turbines are those that differ significantly from the most common types in use.
A centrifugal fan is a mechanical device for moving air or other gases in a direction at an angle to the incoming fluid. Centrifugal fans often contain a ducted housing to direct outgoing air in a specific direction or across a heat sink; such a fan is also called a blower, blower fan, or squirrel-cage fan. Tiny ones used in computers are sometimes called biscuit blowers. These fans move air from the rotating inlet of the fan to an outlet. They are typically used in ducted applications to either draw air through ductwork/heat exchanger, or push air through similar impellers. Compared to standard axial fans, they can provide similar air movement from a smaller fan package, and overcome higher resistance in air streams.
A fan is a powered machine used to create a flow of air. A fan consists of a rotating arrangement of vanes or blades, generally made of wood, plastic, or metal, which act on the air. The rotating assembly of blades and hub is known as an impeller, rotor, or runner. Usually, it is contained within some form of housing, or case. This may direct the airflow, or increase safety by preventing objects from contacting the fan blades. Most fans are powered by electric motors, but other sources of power may be used, including hydraulic motors, handcranks, and internal combustion engines.
Industrial fans and blowers are machines whose primary function is to provide and accommodate a large flow of air or gas to various parts of a building or other structures. This is achieved by rotating a number of blades, connected to a hub and shaft, and driven by a motor or turbine. The flow rates of these mechanical fans range from approximately 200 cubic feet (5.7 m3) to 2,000,000 cubic feet (57,000 m3) per minute. A blower is another name for a fan that operates where the resistance to the flow is primarily on the downstream side of the fan.
This article briefly describes the components and systems found in jet engines.
Airflow, or air flow, is the movement of air. The primary cause of airflow is the existence of air. Air behaves in a fluid manner, meaning particles naturally flow from areas of higher pressure to those where the pressure is lower. Atmospheric air pressure is directly related to altitude, temperature, and composition.