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Airfoil-missing losses | 15 comments (15 topical)
Re: Airfoil-missing losses (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by Birdmanjack on Sun Nov 27, 2005 at 10:19:11 AM MST

I am using flat aluminum blades which I made myself with angled washers at 17 degrees. I used a softer aluminum to help reduce metal fatigue. The blades are about 1/4 inch thick and seem to work really good. I am running an ametek 90 volt motor and using it to heat two heating elements on a hot water tank to help my boiler. Everything is up about 32 feet in the air. Being of a machining background and now repairing power plants I see and use a lot of aluminum. Most of the blades on the high speed fans are made of it and have very few problems. I wonder how a piece of wood flying thru the air differs from a piece of metal at the speeds we are talking about. The wood is most likely heavier and would do more damage. This is my personal opinion because I have never heard of anyone getting hit with a blade of either kind. Hope you have the best of luck.  The Birdman
Blades & wings amazing things:)


Re: Airfoil-missing losses (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by TomW on Sun Nov 27, 2005 at 11:06:39 AM MST

birdman;

Well I think the real stresses come from yawing and wind pushing against the blades not the rotation itself.

Both of these forces concentrate at the root. wind pressure forces are probably obvious. The yaw forces may be a bit harder to understand. Just like any spinning object there are gyroscopic forces that resist moving out of the current plane of rotation and I believe it concentrates in the root / hub area. So now you have at least 3 forces on that area  the force trying to fold them back along the shaft, the force trying to jerk them off so they can fly away and the forces trying to twist them off at the hub. Modeling these is beyond my ability but it sure seems like it is a lot of forces trying to fatigue those blades twisting pushing and pulling in a never ending combination.

I have no experience with the physics involved but given a few years I am fairly sure it could beat any material to death. Just tossing that into the mix.

Good luck with them.

Cheers.

TomW

Without fools, you could not look intelligent. There is no knowledge without questions.


[ Parent ]



Re: Airfoil-missing losses (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by Birdmanjack on Sun Nov 27, 2005 at 11:26:12 AM MST

My blades do not run super fast I was looking for more power than any thing else. I probably should have put the size and lenght of the blades. Blades are about 8' from tip to tip and are roughly 6" at the base and 3" at the tip. I am geared at 8 to 1 now because I did have a problem with it trying to tear itself apart. Seems to be about right. Loads down the blades and gives me the speed to make the gen put out what I need. Probably not the perfect design but it works and does what I need. Wanted to put a picture on here but could not figure how to do it. Thanks for the comeback look forward to more.
Blades & wings amazing things:)
[ Parent ]


Airfoil-missing losses | 15 comments (15 topical)

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