Performance and Cost Optimization of an Advanced Lift Fan Blade for Hovercraft

Lift fan efficiency, noise, and life cycle cost all impact mission capabilities of the Navy’s next-generation landing hovercraft, the Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC). Improving efficiency will increase the SSC’s endurance and range, reduced noise will improve environmental conditions for personnel on the craft, and minimizing life cycle cost will reduce the overall operational expenses for the SSC program. During Phase I, Creare developed a lift fan blade design that reduced the maintenance burden (fewer fasteners) and reduced blade life cycle cost by more than 60% while also maintaining aerodynamic performance. In Phase II, we will refine the aerodynamic and structural design using high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and structural finite element analysis (FEA) models. This refined design will meet Navy flow rate and pressure performance requirements at the nominal operational speed. We will demonstrate the refined design by fabricating a full scale lift fan and conducting aerodynamic testing on a stand and onboard an SSC. During fabrication we will also demonstrate the low cost of the blades.