Abstract
In this study an analysis of the flow characteristics in three types of turbo-fans for a vacuum cleaner was performed by using CFD. The characteristics of three models calculated for various rotating speed for flow rates are obtained and compared with measured data. The mixing plane approach is applied to compute the flow between impeller and diffuser. The results show that the model that is modified to reduce fan noise gives stable flow characteristics in operating range than the original model, with both models show similar performance characteristics at the range of high flow rate. Since in the modified model it takes much longer for an impeller blade to pass a diffuser blade than in the original model, and the peak pressure at BPF can be relieved, it is anticipated that the modified model give much lower noise level with similar performance than the original one, which remains to be verified by unsteady computation and measurements. The good agreement between the predictions and measurement results confirms the validity of this study.