P16228: Magnetically Levitated Propeller

Subsystem Design

Table of Contents

1 Team Vision for Subsystem-Level Design Phase
2 Feasibility: Prototyping, Analysis, Simulation
- 2.1 Phase-Appropriate Analysis
3 Drawings, Schematics, Flow Charts, etc.
- 3.1 Propeller Designs
- 3.2 Flowchart
4 Bill of Materials (BOM)
5 Risk Assessment
6 Design Review Materials
7 Plans for next phase

The subsystem design phase is a smaller section of the overall detail design phase. Overall the goal of this phase is to create, choose, and come up with specific ideas for sections of the system.

Team Vision for Subsystem-Level Design Phase

Goals

Thrust and power calculations should be created
Magnetism and levitation calculations should be created
Research on propellers
CAD models of the propellers
Update risks
Improving and solidifying elements of the design

Accomplishments

Thrust and power calculations were done and came with conclusive results.
Spreadsheet of relationships between mass, levitation, and magnetism were created.
Several key facts an concepts of propellers were discovered, which led to the creation of the propeller designs
Added several new risks and assigned them to group members
Designs were more detailed and research done on buying a DC motor.

Feasibility: Prototyping, Analysis, Simulation

Phase-Appropriate Analysis

Analysis/Prototype

Question: How will thrust be calculated?

Assumptions:

is a function of vehicle speed
in-compressible fluid & flow
exit velocity is uniform
gain data from test runs

Analysis:

This is a continuation of the first thrust feasibility analysis seen on the systems design page. It goes more in depth in the calculations and has several examples.
Creating several possible areas for the propeller designs to discover the thrust values.
Equation's displayed below

Thrust Equations

F is the force/thrust
p is the pressure, pte is the downstream total pressure, pto is the static pressure
rho is the density of air or water (vicinity it is in)
Ve is the exit velocity, Vo is velocity of the vehicle
A is the disk area of the propeller

Below is the spreadsheet for the thrust calculations. It includes several possible disk areas and velocities.

Thrust Spreadsheet

By Bernie Garcia

Analysis

Question: How is power calculated from a propeller’s thrust?

Assumptions:

Density of salt water
In-compressible fluid & flow
Uniform disk area

Analysis:

Power of propeller through thrust
Calculations involve density, area, and thrust
Equation displayed below

Power Equation

P is the power (J/s)
T is the thrust
Rho is the density of salt water
A is the disk area

Below is a spreadsheet filled with power calculations derived from examples from the previous thrust calculations. It should be noted that the higher the thrust, then the higher the power.

Power Spreadsheet

By Bernie Garcia

The spreadsheets for the thrust and power calculations can be found here

Question: How much magnetic force is needed to levitate?

Assumptions:

Solenoid model is accurate and correct
magnetic fields are uniform and ideal
all electrical properties are ideal
material properties are idea

Analysis:

This excel sheet below calculates several different, important factors for levitation.
The first portion uses several inputs to determine the field strength, Beta, and the overall force
This is followed by a portion that allows the number of turns for a certain Beta to be calculated
The next portion is a reverse of the first. In this sense it uses a known force to calculate the needed Beta.
- From this other important parameters such as the number of wire turns and distances can be found
The spreadsheet also includes comments explaining how each column is found, along with necessary units, and images of several key equations

Levitation Spreadsheet

To the right is a link to the spreadsheet that is used. Levitation Spreadsheet

Drawings, Schematics, Flow Charts, etc.

Propeller Designs

Cad Models

5 bladed propeller design

3 bladed propeller design

4 bladed propeller design

Inverted propeller design

Cad Sheets

5 bladed propeller design sheet

3 bladed propeller design sheet

4 bladed propeller design sheet

Inverted propeller design sheet

Propeller Descriptions

4 different propeller designs, which can all be altered to change size and blade number.
Propeller designs 1 and 3 have hulls with either a pointed end or smoothed over end. This is a conventional propeller design.
Design 1 has large angle twists on the blades to allow multiple blades without colliding into one another.
Design 2 has 3 blades to be efficient and has an extruded hole throughout the hull to allow for items to be placed fully though, such as shaft.
Design 3 has four blades and is similar to design 1, except it 's blades aren't quite angled/twisted as it.
Design 4 is an inverted propeller, where the propeller itself can be placed within a motor.
Hydro propellers usually have 3-5 blades.
Less blades makes the propeller more efficient, but usually require large hull diameters.
Lower number of blades also has less resistance
Large number of blades reduces noise, but they can disrupt the water flow and cause turbulence
More blades also equals a smoother and uniform performance, with the blades being able to be smaller because they don't have to cover as much of the disk area

Propeller Pugh chart

Pugh Charts

Flowchart

System Flowchart

Visio Flowchart

Bill of Materials (BOM)

Rough Estimate for Motor Construction

Feasibility
- Construct a motor from scratch
- Purchase an ‘off the shelf’ motor
Projected budget for designing/building a motor
Purchase a brushless DC motor for roughly $300