Fan blades

[upstart]

What is the best way to get realistic looking fan blades for a turbine engine fan (airliner engine)? I am having problems getting the correct orientation on the blades. Any tutorials available out there to let me see it up close?

Thanks in advance
Chris

 

[SBaugh]

Best thing to do is go find a model at the SW subscription site and see how they made it.

There are not any books or how to's that I know of, for making certain items. It all varies depending of the Designer or Engineer.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[dgiy]

Depending on the version of SW you have....

Look up Multibody Overview in the help they show an example of creating a spoke between an axle and rim. It looks like this could be useful for doing fan blades also.


DG

 

[drawoh]

Upstart,

I drew blades for a cooling fan by selecting the centre plane, drawing a closed spline and extruding it to the inside diameter of the fan housing. I added a little draft angle to make it look good. I had to wiggle my sketch and the draft angle a bit, but now it looks realistic. I used a polar array to create the complete set of blades.

All I achieved here was something that looked neat. If I was actually designing the fan, I would have to come up with something a lot fancier.

Consider how complicated your final model is going to be. If you model several hundred turbine blades, your update times might be a problem.

Can you model the blades as rectangles? They will not stand close inspection, but the drawings should look okay.

Consider modeling the volume occupied by the turbine blades as a single solid. Set the end surfaces to slightly transparent. The 3D model could wind up looking very good, with almost no impact on update time. This is a great way to do grilles.

JHG

 

[SBaugh]

Look at doing a loft with guide curves and multiple profiles. I have a 4 bladed prop on the plane I built at my site.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help