Abstract
This study is to investigate the air flow around a sirocco fan which is used in a range hood. The main object of the study is to improve the flow rate of the fan by analysis of unsteady 3-dimensional incompressible flow. Overall analysis is carried out using CFD method. For this, we used a commercial code, SC/Tetra, and used a sliding mesh method to give the same condition as an actual state. First, verification of the CFD results is done by comparing the experimental data with the numerical data for the suction flow rate. It is confirmed that two results are well consistent. Then for the improvent of flow rate, the effect of shape factors such as diameter ratio of fan, geometry of case, cut-off aperture and guide angle of case exit on the suction flow rate was considered. Especially, for a new design of housing, the principle of Archimedes spiral was used. The overall analysis was applied to a new design of housing, and the result showed an increase of flow rate by 10.7%.