Investigation on the Influence of Inlet Lip Configuration on the Performance of Small Electric Driven Ducted Fan

Electric drive duct fan is the research frontier of future aviation green, efficient and safe development due to its great advantage of low fuel consumption. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study the power of electric drive duct fans. This paper analyzed four types of duct fans with different lip configurations first by numerical simulation method. Then a dynamic test platform was established to verify the results. Finally, thrust tests were carried out on duct fans with different lip configurations in a reflux tunnel to study the effect of lip configurations on the aerodynamic performance of small electric drive duct fans. The results show that the aerodynamic difference between the duct fans with different lip configurations is obvious. The increase of the radius of the lip of the duct fans leads to the increase of the intake volume and thus the increase of the thrust. However, too large lip radius at high wind speed (over 31m/s) will increase the wind resistance of the duct fan, which is manifested as vortex structure at the duct lip in the flow field, affecting the aerodynamic performance of the duct fan. At 100% throttle and a wind speed of 14.2 m/s, the net thrust of the trumpet shape and outward-expanded shape intake lip configurations is increased by 17.58% and 12.77%, respectively, compared with the inward shape intake lip configurations. At the wind speed of 49.3 m/s, the resistance of the trumpet shape intake lip is increased by 14.85% compared with that of the inward shape intake lip.