Lightweight, Efficient Blower for Personal Air Ventilation System

A personal air ventilation system (PAVS) can dramatically improve the environment inside chemical/biological protective clothing, protecting the health and safety of soldiers and enabling peak physical/mental performance for long periods. However, existing air blowers that can produce the flow rate and pressure drop needed for a PAVS are too heavy, inefficient, and noisy for a man-portable system. We propose to develop an innovative blower that can provide the required flow rate and pressure rise performance and meet the Army’s challenging requirements. In Phase I we proved the feasibility of our approach by: (1) assessing and choosing the optimum blower technology, (2) building and demonstrating a proof-of-concept blower, (3) validating our design model using performance data from the proof-of-concept blower, and (4) using the validated model to produce a design for the Phase II prototype. In Phase II we will optimize the fluid dynamic performance of the blower and motor to achieve small size, light weight, and high efficiency. We will assemble prototype blowers, demonstrate that they achieve the Army’s goals for PAVS performance, and deliver three prototype personal air ventilation systems to the Army for additional testing.