Team 665 Fan/s and More

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

How much power would be consumed, in order to generate that? I don't think that airspeed is anywhere close to uniform over the propeller disc.

Anecdotally, I've dealt with a propeller-based system: a 100 lb model aircraft with a pair of 1 250 W (mechanical output) motors and Ø20 in two-bladed propellers with 12 in pitch. In long-duration maximum-power static thrust tests on the ground (there was resistance at the wheels, but not much), it had between 30 lb and 40 lb of thrust. The blades were spinning at over 6 000 rev/min, and the motors were drawing over 40 A each at 40 V. (The aircraft had a conservative flight duration of around 8 minutes at maximum power. When cruising, it needed far less power than that to sustain estimated airspeeds of 100 km/h.)

Incidentally, it's the experience on that project (everyone stayed safe), that fuels my healthy distaste for propeller systems in crowded spaces.

Like I said - 320 pounds if uniform. Assume it's not, so I halved the value to 150. Even if you want to cut it 80%, they're going to get similar drive from that fan as they do from the wheels, so they'll accelerate twice as fast as a non-ducted bot.

They better not have the air-intake on the bottom of the robot though.....