HOVERCRAFT

HOVERCRAFT
1. INRODUCTION
Vehicles designed to travel close to but above ground or water. These
vehicles are supported in various ways. Some of them have a specially
designed wing that will lift them just off the surface over which they travel
when they have reached a sufficient horizontal speed (the ground effect).
Hovercrafts are usually supported by fans that force air down under the
vehicle to create lift, Air propellers, water propellers, or water jets usually
provide forward propulsion. Air-cushion vehicles can attain higher speeds
than can either ships or most land vehicles and use much less power than
helicopters of the same weight. Air-cushion suspension has also been applied
to other forms of transportation, in particular trains, such as the French Aero
train and the British hover train.

Hovercraft is a transportation vehicle that rides slightly above the

earth’s surface. The air is continuously forced under the vehicle by a fan,
generating the cushion that greatly reduces friction between the moving
vehicle and surface. The air is delivered through ducts and injected at the
periphery of the vehicle in a downward and inward direction. This type of
vehicle can equally ride over ice, water, marsh, or relatively level land.

2. HOVERCRAFT

2.1. HOVERCRAFT HISTORY

The first recorded design for a hovercraft was in 1716 put forward by
Emmanual Swedenborg, a Swedish designer and philosopher. The project
was short-lived and a craft was never built. Swedenborg realized that to
operate such a machine required a source of energy far greater than any
available at that time. In the mid-1870s, the British engineer Sir John
Thornycroft built a number of model craft to check the air-cushion effects
and even filed patents involving air-lubricated hulls, although the technology
required to implement the concept did not yet exist. From this time both
American and European engineers continued work on the problems of
designing a practical craft. In the early 1950s the British inventor Christopher
Cockerell began to experiment with such vehicles, and in 1955 he obtained a
patent for a vehicle that was "neither an airplane, nor a boat, nor a wheeled
land craft." He had a boat builder produce a two-foot prototype, which he
demonstrated to the military in 1956 without arousing interest. Cockerell
persevered, and in 1959 a commercially built one-person Hovercraft crossed
the English Channel. In 1962 a British vehicle became the first to go into
active service on a 19-mi (31-km) ferry run.

2.2. CREATION OF HOVERCRAFTS

When building a hovercraft it is imperative that you are sure you have a
firm grasp of the important concepts and principles involved. An elementary
knowledge of physics is required. Ease of use, cost, availability and safety
are all significant considerations when building a hovercraft. Care must be
taken in selecting a motor and propeller for the proper function and stability
of the hovercraft and to meet your needs for thrust and lift. A good skirt
design is essential for stability and of course, body designs must be well
thought-out in order to meet your needs for speed and stability. Finally, the
rudders must be well weighed out in order to avoid weighing down your
hovercraft and also well shaped in order to move air as efficiently as
possible.

2.3. HOW DOES A HOVERCRAFT WORK

Hovercrafts work on the two main principles of lift and
propulsion. When dealing with a hovercraft, the existence of lift is imperative
for the proper function of the vehicle. Lift is an essential factor because it is
that which allows the craft to ride on a cushion of air several inches off the
ground. This process, the process of attaining lift begins by directing airflow
under the craft. In order to quarantine the air under the air cushion, a skirt is
required. This is done in order to create pressure under the hovercraft which
forces the vehicle off the ground. Attaining the proper amount of airflow is
imperative for the maintenance of the craft’s stability. If too much airflow is
directed under the craft, it will then hover too high above the ground,
resulting in the hovercraft to tip. Not enough lift will cause the craft to
remain on the ground which defeats the very purpose of the hovercraft
altogether. The source of the airflow which propels the craft of the ground is
a fan. The fan can be used for lift and thrust. It can be dedicated to lift or
thrust or even both simultaneously. In either case the passage where the air
flows through to reach the air cushion affects the stability of the hovercraft.
This passage is a hole located on the base of the craft. Another vital
component is the motor. The motor is usually located in the rear of the
vehicle and is the heaviest of the components. Due to the weight of the
motor, extra pressure is required under the area where the motor is
positioned in order to attain hovering capabilities.
That which makes hovercrafts so efficient and different from other
vehicles of its category is that very little force is required for it to move.
Propulsion is that which makes the craft move. The source of this effect is
the fan, which is used to move the air for propulsion. However odd as it may
seem, the fan produces more than enough force for the hovercraft to move.
This is achieved through the existence of another major factor:
Hovercrafts have no contact with the ground; therefore any resistance the
ground may produce under other circumstances is now non-existent for the
craft. As explained above, the propulsion of the craft requires a fan but a
normal fan is not sufficient. This is because a normal fan does not blow air
straight back. Instead it spins the air in a spiral shape. Therefore engineers
decided to use turbines or stationary blades, that un-spin the air. When air
does not spin more of its kinetic energy can be used for translation and less
is required for rotation.
The shape of the body also affects the stability of the hovercraft. The
larger the area of the base, the more stable it will be. Wider base implies
greater stability. Longer and narrower shapes increase speed but decrease
stability. Most hovercrafts have rounded ends, and offer both stability and
speed.
The skirt is another vital component. The common skirt is known as a
bag skirt. It is comprised of a bag that covers the bottom of the base and has
holes in it to allow air to escape and push the craft off the ground. Each part
of the skirt inflates independently which makes repairs much easier and
improves stability. Unfortunately, the more stable a skirt, the slower it will
go.
When the hovercraft is finally able to move it will most definitely
require steering capabilities. This is achieved through the use of rudders.
These rudders can be controlled by a variety of devices including computers.
Rudders cannot be too heavy otherwise they will weigh down the craft
because they are located very close to the motor. The shape of the rudder
dictates how well it will be able to move air.
When riding a hovercraft the natural state of motion is easily seen to
be constant vector velocity with a constant rate of rotation. A sloping floor
will definitely change your velocity vector without changing your rate of
rotation. In addition to Newton’s three laws of motion it will become obvious
that to avoid spinning or tilting the hovercraft you must apply the forces in
line with the center of mass of the combination of the craft and your body.

2.4. PARTS OF A HOVERCRAFT

2.4.1. Lifting Fan
Firstly the volume of air needed is very large and a propeller is
designed to be most efficient in open air like on an aircraft. Also the fan
needs to force air into the chamber below the craft so creating a specific
pressure under the craft. Propellers again are not efficient in applications
when an air backpressure will be applied to the propeller blades as they
rotate. Because of this the lifting fan on most Hovercraft uses what is known
as a centrifugal fan. This is a fan in which two discs and fitted together and
looks rather like a doughnut with angled slats at their edges.
 When the assembly is rotated at high-speed air is sucked into the
center hole in the fan and the slats force it out at the edges. The advantages
of the fan are two fold. They operate efficiently in an environment when
backpressure is high and they will move larger volumes of air for a given
rotation speed than a propeller with the same speed and power input. The
lifting fan is coupled via a gearbox to the engine. The engine also drives the
propeller on the craft, which provides thrust for forward motion of the
Hovercraft.

2.4.2. Thrust Propellers

The propeller used to drive the hovercraft along is usually an aircraft type
with variable pitch blades. Its speed of rotation must remain fixed to that of
the engine and the lift fan. This is because the amount of lift air required
dictates the engine speed to drives the lift fan. In turn the amount of
propulsion, which the propellers provide, must be obtained by varying the
propeller pitch and not its rate of rotation. This system is termed 'integrated
lift/propulsion'. A Hovercraft having more than one lift fan and propeller
generally has a separate engine for each fan-and propeller unit.
The propellers used on hovercraft can vary from four-bladed versions and
about nine feet in diameter on the smaller craft to the four propellers on the
SRN4 cross-Channel hovercraft. These are four-bladed and nineteen feet in
diameter! On the SRN 4 the pylons on which they are mounted can be
rotated to change the direction of thrust. On smaller craft, rudders like on
aircraft, are used for direction control.

2.4.3. Momentum Curtain

When early models were built and analysis was done on the airflow using
the plenum chamber type of hovercraft it showed that there were problems
with stability. In addition the craft would require enormous power to maintain
a reasonable hover height.Stability of the hovercraft on its cushion of air
remained a real problem despite some design efforts and a new approach
was needed. To solve these problems, a plenum chamber with a momentum
curtain was developed by Sir Christopher Cockerall.

2.4.4. Hovercraft Skirt

Despite the momentum curtain being very effective the hover height was
still too low unless great, and uneconomical, power was used. Simple
obstacles such as small waves, or tide-formed ridges of shingle on a beach,
could prove to be too much for the hover height of the craft. These problems
led to the development of the 'skirt'.
The skirt is a shaped, flexible strip fitted below the bottom edges of the
plenum chamber slot. As the hovercraft lifts, the skirt extends below it to
retain a much deeper cushion of air. The development of the skirt enables a
hovercraft to maintain its normal operating speed through large waves and
also allows it to pass over rocks, ridges and gullies.

The skirt of a hovercraft is one of its most design sensitive parts. The design
must be just right or an uncomfortable ride for passengers or damage to the
craft and the skirts results. Also, excessive wear of the skirt can occur if its
edges are flapping up and down on the surface of the water. The skirt
material has to be light flexible and durable all at the same time.

For the skirt to meet all of its requirements the design and use of new
materials has slowly evolved. The current skirts use ‘fingers at the lower
edge of the skirt envelope which can be unbolted and replaced. By doing this
there is a quick and easy way to counter the effects of wear without having
to replace the whole skirt structure. A shocking example of the costs is the
replacement of the skirt assembly on the SRN 4’s which used to cross the
English Channel from theUK to France. The replacement cost for a set of
skirts for this craft is over 5 million US Dollars.

2.4.5. The Engine

The SRN 1 and other early hovercrafts used piston type engines. As models
like the SRN 4 and SRN 6 were brought into service they tended to favor the
use of gas turbines. This type of engine is smaller and lighter for a given
horsepower and has been used extensively in turbo prop aircraft.

The engine has a main shaft on which is mounted a compressor and a

turbine. A starter motor is connected to one end of the shaft and the other
end is connected to the lift fan and propeller gearboxes. Both compressor
and turbine look like fans with a large number of blades.
When the engine is started, the compressor compresses air from the
engine intakes and pushes it into combustion chambers mounted around the
engine. Fuel is squirted into the combustion chambers and ignited. The
compressed air then rapidly expands as it is heated and forces its way out
through the turbine to the exhaust. As the gas pressure rises, the turbine
speeds up, thereby driving the compressor faster. The engine speed
increases until it reaches the engine's normal operating speed.
However, the use of these engines results in a very high level of engine
noise outside the craft. In the SRN 6 this meant that it was possible to hear
the craft traveling across the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of
Wight in the UK several miles away. With the newer generation of craft close
attention was paid to engine noise and fuel efficiency. The current
AP188craft that runs on the old SRN6 routes has now moved back towards
piston engines and uses marine diesel engines that are much quieter and
fuel efficient.
2.4.6. Air box
The box-like structure at the rear of the hovercraft, right behind the
propeller, the box-like structure is called an air box. The air box takes about
10% of the air being pushed backward by the propeller and forces it
downward, underneath the hovercraft. There are three small ducts cut into
the base of the hovercraft, underneath the air box. Two of these ducts lead
into the skirt, which is basically a bag that goes all the way around the
perimeter of the craft, while the third duct leads directly underneath the
hovercraft.

2.5. HOVERING POWER

Take a hovercraft which, complete with crew, fuel and load, weighs
2,000 pounds (lbs.), and is 15 feet (ft.) long and 7 ft. wide. Its area would be
15 ft x 7 ft. = 105 square (sq.) ft.
If the craft is to hover, the pressure of air forming the cushion must
be 2,000 pounds or greater. This represents 19 pounds. Per sq. ft. Yes, only
19 pounds per square feet is required to lift the hovercraft which seems
much smaller than you might imagine. From existing designs of Hovercraft
that have been developed, it is possible to make some simple estimate of
the power needed to lift a Hovercraft. Using 19 pounds per square foot it is
estimated 4 horsepower for each sq. ft. of curtain or skirt area can maintain
that hover.
Curtain area is its length times its height. A hovercraft 15 ft. long by 7
ft. wide would have a curtain length of 44 ft.-twice the length plus twice the
width.
If we want it to hover one foot high we would need sufficient power to
provide a curtain of 44 x 1 sq. ft. At 4 horsepower per sq, ft. we would need
176 horsepower Just to lift the craft up to hover one foot above the ground.
Don't forget we now need to push the craft along as well so that engine is
the minimum size we can use.

2.6. RUDDERS
When the hovercraft is finally able to move it will most definitely require
steering capabilities. This is achieved through the use of rudders. These
rudders can be controlled by a variety of devices including computers. The
rudders must be well weighed out in order to avoid weighing down your
hovercraft and also well shaped in order to move air as efficiently as
possible.
Rudders cannot be too heavy otherwise they will weigh down the craft
because they are located very close to the motor. The shape of the rudder
dictates how well it will be able to move air.

2.7. HOVERCRAFT OPERATION

 Piloting a hovercraft is an interesting proposition. Since very little of it
actually touches the ground, there isn't much friction, making it very difficult
to steer and also very susceptible to strong winds. Imagine trying to drive
around on top of an air-hockey puck! We've discovered that the best way to
drive it is treat it like a jetski, i.e. leaning back and forth and steering very
carefully. It is also possible to do a 360-degree turn without stopping, which
is quite a sight.

2.8. AERODYNAMICS
Aerodynamics is defined as the branch of fluid physics that studies the forces
exerted by air or other gases in motion. Examples include the airflow around
bodies moving at speed through the atmosphere (such as land vehicles,
bullets, rockets, and aircraft), the behavior of gas in engines and furnaces,
air conditioning of buildings, the deposition of snow, the operation of air-
cushion vehicles (hovercraft), wind loads on buildings and bridges, bird and
insect flight, musical wind instruments, and meteorology. For maximum
efficiency, the aim is usually to design the shape of an object to produce a
streamlined flow, with a minimum of turbulence in the moving air. The
behavior of aerosols or the pollution of the atmosphere by foreign particles
are other aspects of aerodynamics.
3. CONCLUSION
Hovercrafts are generally simple mechanisms in theory. Yet the process
from theory to manifestation is not as easy as it may seem. A plethora of
problems exist and must be faced in order to attain a well functioning
hovercraft. The plans and designs must be flawless. One must take under
consideration the weight and the shape of each component in order to avoid
problems such as instability and dysfunction. This is a marvelous machine
which greatly cuts down the friction which in turn helps it to attain greater
speed and more stability.

Varieties of problems and factors have to be taken into account in designing

and constructing a hovercraft. The difficulties involved in maintaining
stability and functional competency has limited the application to only
transportation or for military purpose. The cost involved in the developing of
a hovercraft is also another impediment to the widespread use of this
machine.

4. REFERENCE
1. www.quicktechhobby.com
2. www.hovertechnics.com
3. www.rescuehovercraft.com
4. www.edufive.com/seminartopics.html