Design and Analysis of a Vertical Electric Ducted Fan for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Several types of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used in various industrial activities. UAVs with electric ducted fans (EDFs) have been developed to mitigate the risks associated with rotary blades, which are installed on the exterior structure of conventional UAVs and exposed to the ambient environment. Particularly, vertical EDFs have become a focus in the field of UAV design because they require less space for the flow channel compared with horizontal EDFs. In this study, a vertical EDF UAV model was developed. Structural and flow field analysis was performed in Ansys software to determine the optimal design configuration. The results confirmed that the designed model facilitated smooth air flow with favorable inlet and outlet velocity. The vehicle structure required minor adjustment to reduce the frequency of occurrence of vortices. Overall, this study made two research contributions. First, an EDF UAV model was developed to mitigate the risk of rotary blades being exposed to the ambient environment. Second, a vertical EDF system was proposed to reduce the flow channel space and maintain the outlet velocity, thereby improving the takeoff, landing, and thrust performance of UAVs.