The Phyxius project
A new attempt to break world records...
submitted by: Carl Palmblad
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm
Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering
Introduction
16 students in their last year of a Master of Science degree at KTH
(the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden), have formed
a team with the purpose of building a waterbike. The faculty is not
involved other than by advising in special matters. The work is part
of a project course and the team consists of five people studying
aeronautics and aerospace engineering, and the others are conducting
their studies in lightweight construction. The project was launched
in mid August and the waterbike, called Phyxius from Latin which
means "ready to lift", is planned to be finished in late
spring 2003. The economical budget for the project is $4000 and the
"time" budget is 12 weeks of full time work per team
member. The goal of this project is to combine the knowledge of
those studying aviation, whose main task is to build the hydrofoil
and the propulsion system, with the skills of those who have the
task of building the watebike light and rigid. The ambition is to
use the theoretical knowledge gathered during four years at
university and to transform it into the practical building of a
water-based vehicle. Our ambition is to learn as much as possible in
ship constructing without a specific knowledge in marine technology.
The specification is fairly simple: obtain maximum velocity on water
using human power only. This specification was changed, during the
first weeks of the project, to "World record - 20 knots with
one pilot" in late May or early June 2003.
The Early design,
sketches and performance calculations
Not knowing what type of propulsion to use, we investigated
several alternatives. Two of them are seen in figure 1 and 2.
Figure 1: Early sketch of Phyxius with a front mounted air
propeller
Figure 2: Early sketch of Phyxius with a front mounted surface
piercing propeller
Performance calculations were made using basic flight theory, seen
in figure 3, to make sure that we theoretically were able to reach
20 knots. According to these calculations this was reachable.
Figure 3: Graph of required effect as a function of speed
Final design
The final design includes:
- One main wing and two front stabilizers.
- Air propeller mounted in front of the pilot
- One hull with two stabilizers
Figure 4: Final Design
Figure 5: Phyxius low speed mode
In early March, the project were invited to Stockholm Marine Fair.
Many visitors showed great interest despite no actual boat.
Figure 6: At the Marine Fair, Stockholm, March 1st, 2003
Manufacturing
In the beginning of January the manufacturing phase started. We are
constructing all parts at our department. The parts are mainly made
of carbon fibre.
Figure 7: Cleaning the hull mould
Figure 8: Making the core for the carbon
Figure 9: Vacuum injection of stabilizer fibre propeller
Current status (March 27th, 2003)
Manufactured components:
- Chair
- Stabilizers
- Mast
- Transmission
- Joints for propeller and stabilizers
The other parts are almost finished.
Approximated date of maiden voyage is late April (still ice on
lakes in Sweden until early April).
I would like to thank our sponsors for making this attempt
possible:
With kind regards,
Carl Palmblad
e-mail: callep@kth.se
Our homepage: http://flygmac7.flyg.kth.se/wb
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm: www.kth.se
Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering: www.ave.kth.se
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