Date of Last Revision
2023-05-03 13:23:02
Major
Aerospace Systems Engineering
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2019
Abstract
The core goal of this project was to prototype, test, and evaluate a new type of fan for the Safran Electrical & Power air-cooled generators. The idea of a new fan being made for these two generators arose when they were not adhering to design requirements. A base mixed-flow fan was created to test on multiple generators. Upon creating a prototype, it will be tested to prove if it can increase the air flow, decrease temperatures, and increase power and life of the machines. They all proved to be successful and achieve the main objectives for this project. Data such as temperatures throughout the generator, rotational speed, mass flow, pressures, vibrations and more were taken during the tests. The temperature gap between the legacy and mixed-flow fan increases as speed increases. Even under these extreme conditions, the mixed-flow fan manages to reduce the temperatures internally better than the legacy fan. Mass flow was also improved with the new fan. Though the results for both Generator A & B were positive improvements, there are some things that the mixed-flow fan is having difficulty competing with the legacy fan design: it works, its easily manufactured, inexpensive and light weight.
Research Sponsor
Dr. Nicholas Garafolo
First Reader
Dr. Francis Loth
Second Reader
Eric Kline
Recommended Citation
Wattleworth, Rachel, "Generator Design: A Study of Optimized Airflow" (2019). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 970.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/970
Included in
Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics Commons, Aviation Commons, Manufacturing Commons, Materials Science and Engineering Commons