Hi friends,

I was just wondering that can computer fans be used as ducted fans for flying plane??
If somebody here is already flying with that ,then please share your experience with us.

Thnks
Snehal

I was planning on trying it long ago but was told that it would be impractical.Now when I look back at it,it seems totally impractical.

What if i change the motor of the fan..?? Is the fan aerodynamically not correct??

Computer Fans are not ducted fans they are merely cooling fans or you might say exhaust fans. As the name imply they are of very low RPM designed for sustained operations for long hours. They have built in Speed controllers. Their Magnets are also of material similar to Magnetic Rubber. Not the strong strontium/ Neodymium magnets which is used in normal Brushless motors.

The CPU fans are having a variable speed controllers controlled by PPM input from the mother board based on the temp variation of the CPU IC core.

You can use the fan blades of the Computer/ CPU fans for EDF, but since they are designed to be more efficient in low RPM, since they have more number of blades, which makes them inefficient at high RPM due to resistance and drag caused by the blades. Further fitting them and designing an EDF for them and fitting the blades in the EDF, designing a counter rotating static vanes if not very difficult makes you wonder, weather is it a wise course of action.

Is it worth the effort is debatable.

I have mounted one such vanes in an 73mm EDF. It gives good thrust but it is inefficient. I will post photographs subsequently.  

I have also tried this few years ago but Didn't worked.   You can't change that inbuilt motor to a newer heavy power motor coz, you can not at all.....  

The reason is that In the Inbuilt motor of a CPU fan, Outer "can" a.k.a "Drum" or "whatever we say" has blades itself. There is no saperate
"Cans" or "Drums" for fan and Motor. The motor's "can" itself is the fan which rotates. So, its totally impossible to mount a new motor on place of older one without damaging either motor or fan...


But GUYS. keep pulling new ideas from our evil minds. So that we can try at home, when the study gets boring.....

Thank you.

hey,
What i was thinking that just drilling a hole in the center of the fan and fitting it on a 2200 kv motor just like a prop.(I guess this should work )
But it seems that the blades of computer fan are not efficient.??
So should i give up this idea??

Hey another question. Since that inbuilt motor is brushless, Can we use our typical ESC to control speed of fan? Well this don't make any sense coz they are not designed for the Aeromodelling applications but for other uses like Home made/DIY projects? What you say?

@Sumit.The motherboard itself is its ESC .hehe.It will work with ESC's but what rating??
It can be used as a table fan i guess;) .

@snehal50samarpit

That will work but It also seems like the Pitch of its blades is far more greater to provide good cooling at low RPM's in the Computer. Give it a try if you have a "spare"/"Not in Use" motor. And also have some Multimeter near you to measure the Current draw in System.

Don't forget to tell us the result if you are trying.

Quote from: snehal50samarpit on May 10, 2011, 04:05:57 PM
@Sumit.The motherboard itself is its ESC .hehe.It will work with ESC's but what rating??
It can be used as a table fan i guess;) .

That's what I was telling about the DIY or Homemade projects. Table fan is good. But as we don't know the Current, Can't tell you about the Rating of ESC.

Ya and if you successfully run that fan with your motor, It could be also used as a Wind blower to dry the clothes in rainy season.  
Sorry, Jokes apart, It could be used as a wind blower in a small scale Wind tunnel for testing our models and everything we make ourselves to fly. May be two three Fans together will work.
It is complicated but is a good thinking. What you say about a wind tunnel?

Yup i have a multimetre..i will try to post the results.But spare ducted fans is the problem.
It will be great if this experiment worked.
But iamahuman have already tried wid that .

@iamahuman . So you were unhappy with motor blades ...or the performance it was giving??

@ sumeet .Good imagination and full of creativity.

Hey such a thing also comes in the Hair Driers. And They rotate at a High speed too. Couldn't we try that one in our experiment?
And thanks for the compliment. 

BTW You are creative too....

Hey dude this is an RCIndia website

Well aprt from jokes we should try for it.I just saw some plans in www.mikeysrc.com and most of his model require a duct fan.

i think  we can  use  the fan part from  Hairdryers   and  hot air blowers    as  they  are  suitable  for  higher  RPM .........
but  they  use  smaller Motors  in them .......

So what i am thinking is drilling a hole in the centre and throw away PC's fans motor or let it remain there.Then use it as a prop and fit it on the motor.
Motor mount for such a setup should not be a great deal.