Ducted fan with inlet vanes and deswirl vanes

Abstract

A fan apparatus includes a ducted housing with an axis of rotation including a first section and a second section. The fan apparatus further includes a first plurality of vanes being radially coupled within the first section and a second plurality of vanes being radially coupled within the second section. Additionally, the fan apparatus includes an impeller with a plurality of blades rotatably disposed within the ducted housing between the first plurality of vanes and the second plurality of vanes for rotary motion about the axis of rotation. The first plurality of vanes are stationary in a first arrangement to guide an inflow of air towards the impeller. The plurality of blades are rotary in a second arrangement to have a rotational direction substantially opposite to the inflow of air guided by the first arrangement. The second plurality of vanes are stationary in a third arrangement to diffuse an outflow of air substantially along the axis of rotation.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates generally to air processing techniques, and in particular to a fan apparatus having improved output capacity.[0002]Developments and operations of high density integrated circuits, high-power electronics, avionics, and advanced telecommunication equipment usually are associated with the generation of large amounts of heat. How to dissipate this heat quickly and effectively is an important concern. A widely used solution is air cooling with a fan apparatus. Conventional cooling fans typically run at relatively low rotational speeds, e.g., 15,000 RPM (rotations per minute) or lower. In order to drive up the rotational speeds, a ducted fan can be used to provide more air flow at high pressure while keeping the size of the ducted fan frame the same.[0003]One conventional ducted fan configuration includes just a single set of stationary vanes (usually used as inlet guide vanes) followed by a single rotating impeller. The flow ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to air processing techniques, and in particular to a fan apparatus that integrally combines a rotating impeller disposed between an upstream set of stationary inlet guide vanes and a downstream set of stationary deswirl vanes. Merely by way of example, such fan apparatus is constructed in a ducted housing with unique arrangements for the rotating impeller blades and upstream / downstream stationary vanes for enhancing fan performance at high rotational speeds. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability.

[0010]Many benefits are achieved by applying embodiments of the present invention. Certain embodiments of the invention provide a ducted fan apparatus with a unique combination of a single rotating impeller disposed between two sets of stationary vanes. This can be configured to operate at relative high rotational speeds of 30,000 rpm or higher compared to conventional cooling fan running at speed of 15,000 rpm or lower. Additionally, the ducted fan configured according to certain embodiment of the present invention also advantageously differs from convention ducted fans with either a single set of stationary vanes at upstream or downstream of an rotating impeller. The advantage relies on the improved pressure compression characteristics. For example, the ducted fan according to an embodiment of the present invention can provide more air flow with pressure enhanced by about 20% while keeping the same fan frame size. Thus, the cooling efficiency of the fan is greatly improved. This is especially useful for effectively dissipate heat generated by many high-power and dense electronics, avionics, and telecommunication equipments. Alternatively, the ducted fan structure according certain embodiments of the present invention can also be applied for a small aircraft propulsion systems such as UAV's due to the superior performance on high rotational speeds to handle large amount of air flow with high pressure.

Problems solved by technology

The flow of air processed by such a conventional ducted fan is deficient in the flow's directional guidance and is lacking in output capacity in terms of pressure enhancement.

But, it is not suit for new small form-factor aircraft propulsion systems for UAV's (unmanned air vehicles).

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