Wide-chord fan

[A/T less]

Hello,

let the debate begin, why is a wide-chord fan engine better?

Thanks

A/T less

[BASIS]

Better than what.....depends on what you want to do with it.

[Karunch]

From the Iae advertisement, 'the wide chord fan has a greater resistance to Fod'. Not sure if this is because the blade is more robust, or because of the smaller inlet diameter and subsequent greater distance from the tarmac. Iae vs Cfm installation on A320.

[SkyCruiser]

It's stronger and lighter, thus better fuel efficiency.

[PCav8or]

The construction of turbofan engines for commercial aviation has two main approaches to building fans :

(a) Snubbered fan, and
(b) Wide-chord fan.

Briefly, snubbered fan (or shrouded fan) blades are narrow
and long (high aspect ratio). The part-span shrouds are there to
prevent vibrations. They are usually made of solid titanium. On
the other hand, the Wide-Chord Fan (WCF) blades have much lower aspect ratio. Since, there is no blockage in the passage, the fan will pump more air, and the fan efficiency will be higher. Rolls-Royce was definitely the pioneer, and they paid the price. The original design for the RB211-22B (the L1011 powerplant) used composite materials for the WCF. During their development, they encountered many difficulties, and that was a major reason for R-R's bankruptcy. Eventually, they went back to the conventional fan. (Arguably, R-R's bankruptcy resulted in the eventual demise of the L1011.) The first in-service WCF was the RB211-535E4 on the B757. This time, the blades were made of honeycomb-filled titanium (or hollowed titanium). The reason for using light-weight materials is because the WCF are much larger than the conventional blade. If the same material is used, then the weight penalty will erase any of the aerodynamic gain.