Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hey,

I am working on the design of a low pressure axial flow fan.

I have generated the aerofoil sections at 5 different radii of the fan
along with their stagger angles. What I am struggling with is how they are
to be oriented with respect to each other in the axial direction. For a
aerofoil at a given radii, after I have found its its stagger angle, I
could still translate it along the circumference (i.e. sweep) and along
the axis of the fan.

I am unable to decide how to move the sections along the axial direction,
before I pass a best fit surface through them to generate a fan blade.
Also does anyone have any idea on how to decide on sweep angle ?

Thank you.

urmilshah wrote:I have generated the aerofoil sections at 5 different radii of the fan
along with their stagger angles.

I'm confused. What are the design parameters you used to figure out the aerofoil sections? Typically the use case will dictate a static pressure, cfm, operational speed, and some constraints on wheel diameter, hub diameter, number of blades, blade spacing or pitch, blade width, blade angle or twist, and noise limits.

If you put "Axial flow fan blade design" into a search engine, you should come up with some background materials. Here are some examples http://www2.basf.us/webplasticsportal/d ... e180004891
http://www.hudsonproducts.com/products/ ... owfans.pdf
http://pic.sagepub.com/content/216/3/367.full.pdf+html