02-02-2013, 12:12 PM
Bladeless is More
Bladeless is More.pdf (Size: 814.53 KB / Downloads: 35)
INTRODUCTION
Released to wide international recognition in 2009 — including being named to Time magazine’s list of best gadgets — the Dyson Air Multiplier™ fan is a both technical and stylistic re-imagining of the household fan. By accelerating air over a ramp, the design eliminates fan
blades as well as the buffeting and turbulence associated
with these household appliances. From the outset, however, Dyson engineers faced the challenge of developing and optimizing the design of an original new fan without the benefit of previous experience with this type of design. Historically, the company relied on physical
prototyping for design development, but resulting cost and time constraints limit the ability to evaluate hundreds
of design candidates needed to optimize a new product. To complement experimental testing and reduce development time for this new fan, Dyson’s engineers used fluid dynamics software from ANSYS to evaluate up to 10 different designs per day.
The idea for the Dyson Air Multiplier fan originated when the engineering team was testing the Dyson
Airblade™ hand dryer. This drying device works by generating a thin sheet of air moving at 400 mph that pushes water off the user’s hands. Observing the side effect that the sheet of air was dragging a considerable portion of the surrounding air with it.
Over the course of the design process, Dyson’s engineers steadily improved the performance of the fan to
the point that the final design has an amplification ratio of
15 to one, a 2.5-fold improvement over the six-to-one ratio of the original concept design. The team investigated
200 different design iterations using simulation, which was
10 times the number that would have been possible had physical prototyping been the primary design tool. Physical testing was used to validate the final design, and
the results correlated well with the simulation analysis.
With critical acclaim from many reviewers, the Dyson Air Multiplier fan has been a resounding success in the marketplace. By optimizing the design’s performance and reducing the number of prototypes, simulation software from ANSYS made a notable contribution to that success.