Centrifugal Blower for Personal Air Ventilation System (PAVS)

Clothing that protects Special Reaction Teams from chemical, biological, and nuclear threats can subject the individuals to heat stress. These hazardous environments require the use of PPE with level A protection for several hours, which can diminish the body’s ability to reject heat, leading to symptoms ranging from muscular weakness, dizziness and physical discomfort to more severe, life-threatening conditions such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke. RTI proposes to develop a miniature centrifugal blower for a personal air ventilation system (PAVS), which uses an innovative centrifugal blower with novel aerodynamic features that contribute to performance, reliability, size and weight that is currently not possible from conventional designs. Specifically, the proposed centrifugal blower rotating at 25000 RPM will provide 10 cfm of air with a pressure head equivalent to 5 inches of water, and will consume 14 W of electrical power. The blower (including the motor, associated battery and electronics) will be cylindrical in shape: 2 inches in diameter and 8 inches in length for an overall volume of 25 cubic inches. The overall weight will be 1.5 lbs. The Phase I effort will concentrate analytical design, optimization through computation and rapid prototype through stereolithography. Phase I option will focus on acquisition of the appropriate motor and its performance evaluation at the required operating point. Precise fabrication, detailed performance testing and integration with appropriate filtration module and uniform would be performed in Phase II.