2011 Poster Contest Award Winner
Ahmed Soueidan - Graduate Student
Mechanical Engineering and Energy Processes
The Fan-Less Aircraft Engine
The rising threats of bird strikes to civilian aircraft impose safety, financial, and environmental risks to flight transportation. A bird collision with commercial aircraft is a concern to public safety and creates unwanted aircraft downtime and repairs. With an average of 20 strikes reported per day along with a 15% chance of impact damage, aircraft personnel and dispatchers should be on alert for potential emergency situations involving bird strikes to aircraft each and every day. With the growing population of birds and flocks, along with airliners carrying more and more passengers, the demand for higher standards for aircraft safety and the ability to withstand foreign object impact damage or avoid it all together is at a critical point in aviation history.
The Fan-Less Aircraft Engine addresses the growing bird-strike threat to the most vital component located on an aircraft. The slightest damage to current turbofans located externally on air by-pass engines from foreign body impact, sometimes unknowingly, can result in catastrophic consequences for public safety, engine functionality, and airliner check books. This new concept provides for adequate shock absorption to resist the harsh impact loadings from bird collisions further protecting the aircraft from malfunction. This engine type is suited to fully operate in the event of a bird-strike and ingestion. More features include smoother moving air flow, attributing to less engine noise and ideal thrust generation, homogenous geometry creating a more balanced rotation increasing mechanical stability, and manufacturing ease. This novel device is categorized as patent pending.
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| From Technology and Innovation Expo |
SIU Student Inventors in the News
SIUC firm picked for entrepreneur program
The Southern | Posted: Sunday, April 3, 2011 1:00 am:
Rover Enterprises LLC, a business started by SIUC students, was recently picked to take part in the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center's CAP 20 program.
The program helps young companies grow throughout a five-year period to build job growth in Illinois. Rover was the only downstate business selected.
The business was created in 2009 by then-SIUC students Brad Miller and Joshua Freeman from Rantoul and Mike Philip of Wheaton. Rover Enterprises offers the discount card that gives owners exclusive deals with participating businesses.
ROSEMONT, Ill. (February 7, 2010)—Winning entries in the 18th annual Student Design Competition, sponsored by the International Housewares Association (IHA), feature creative product concepts that help people from children to the disabled have healthier and safer lives.
First place in the competition went to Wesley York, a senior at Southern Illinois University from Decatur, Ill., who earned $3,000. York won for his design of Illumine—The Pathway to Safety, an emergency light built into an electrical outlet cover.