HISTORICAL DRAWING · 1986 (filed 1984)

Cyclonic vacuum cleaner

How much fan shaft power supports an assumed flow and pressure drop?

J. Dyson, US 4,593,429 "Vacuum Cleaning Appliance", sheet 1 (upright cleaner with cyclone and airflow arrows)
J. Dyson, US 4,593,429 "Vacuum Cleaning Appliance", sheet 1 (upright cleaner with cyclone and airflow arrows). View the original source and attribution ↗

A contemporary sketch model

Every number below is a modern illustrative assumption. The historical drawing supplies a question; the source model is an exercise in reasoning about it.

flow = 0.03 m^3/s in 0.01..0.05 "Illustrative operating airflow"
pressureDrop = 4000 Pa ± 20% "Assumed measured total system loss"
efficiency = 0.5 "Assumed fan efficiency at operating point"
shaftPower := flow*pressureDrop/efficiency [W]
check motorBudget: shaftPower <= 300 W
probe fanPower: shaftPower [W]
sweep Airflow: flow = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05 m^3/s

Model limits

Steady power budget; no cyclone separation efficiency, particle trajectories, fouling evolution or CFD. Pressure drop and efficiency may vary with flow.

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