Design and analysis of winged hovercraft

Published on 28 May 2021. Written by Gurudutt

The hovercraft design for minor, average, and huge load or military vehicles allows traveling from very slow to average to high speeds over water or land. A vehicle of this design is 150% more effective than current aircraft, 20 times faster than load carrying ships, and capable of going to other landmasses. The project can be adapted to a gathering of fast, military, over-water vehicles of any size capable of portable over any landscape.

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The wing was evaluated under different angles of attack, using CFD computations and measurements in a wind tunnel. The scaled wooden model was developed and experimentally analyzed by using wind tunnel experiments. The lift force required to hover the craft is produced by the attached wing. In the traditional model, the power from the single-engine unit is split into two parts for getting thrust and lift. In this winged hovercraft, the most engine power will be delivered to propulsion alone, thus it is possible to hover the vehicle at higher speed with built-in lift wings.

Hovercraft specification

• Length=5 m
• Width=1.35 m
• Cross-sectional area = 5*1.25= 62.5m2
• Weight of Hovercraft-Total weight= 325 kg
• Normal operating speed V=40 km/h
• Power requirement = 220 kW
• Thrust requirement = 8000 N.
• Skirt area = 6m2

Forces Acting on Hovercraft

• Lift force: The lift force that we need to produce in hovercraft is a force that is equal to or greater than the weight of the hovercraft.
• Thrust force: Thrust is the force that pushes the object forward. Having supreme thrust is critical for our hovercraft, as we are designing it so that it may travel a firm distance in the minimum amount of time
• Drag force: Drag must also be measured when designing our hovercraft.

CAD Model:

• The Clark Y airfoil coordinates are imported and developed as a 3D model with a span of 1m.
• The base assembly of hovercraft with Clark Y airfoil wing was modeled using CATIA with dimensions of 5*1.5 m2.

Conclusion:

• The base structure was designed and its lift, thrust, and drag have been determined.
• The Clark Y wing was attached to hovercraft to produce the lift which was already produced by a fan. Hovercraft with the winged model design will be carried out at an optimized angle of attack.
• The performance measures of hover flight will be done using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software’s and the total coefficient of lift to drag ratio will be calculated against the various angle of attack, manipulating the initial thrust required to make the lift and opting maximum propulsion force for forwarding movement.

Kit required to develop Design and analysis of winged hovercraft:

• ANSYS

Technologies you will learn by working on Design and analysis of winged hovercraft:

• Analysis

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