• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.114-123
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• 2000

The flow structure around a rotating axial-fan was experimentally investigated using a phase averaging velocity field measurement technique. The fan blades were divided into 4 different phases, for which 500 velocity fields were acquired for each phase angle with a 2-frame PTV system. Velocity field measurements were also carried out at two planes parallel to the axis of rotation, with offsets toward the radial direction of the fan. For accurate synchronization of the PTV system with the phase of the axial fan, two synchronization circuits were employed with a photo-detector attached to the rotating shaft. The phase averaged velocity fields show periodic variations with respect to the blade phase. The periodic formation of vortices at the blade tip is also observed in vorticity contour plots. Locations of local maximum turbulence intensities in the axial and radial directions are found to be located in an alternating pattern. These experimental results can be used to validate numerical calculations and to understand the flow characteristics of an axial fan.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.454-461
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• 2009

Internal aeroacoustics of an axial fan used for circulating cold air in refrigerators are computed by using the hybrid method where CFD, acoustic analogy and BEM techniques are utilized. The unsteady flow field around the axial fan is predicted by solving the incompressible RANS equations with the conventional CFD techniques. Then, main noise sources are extracted from this unsteady flow field predictions using Acoustic Analogy. Lastly, BPF noise generated from an axial fan are predicted using these modeled sources combined with the tailed Green function techniques, which are numerically solved by the BEM technique. This hybrid model is validated by comparing the prediction with the experiment. Then, parameter studies are carried out, which suggest a capability of the current method as a design tool for the low-noise of the current axial fan system in a refrigerator.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.25-33
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• 2000

This study represents three-dimensional turbulent flow characteristics around an axial fan measured at the operating point ${\varphi}=0.32$, which is equivalent to the maximum flowrate region, by using three-dimensional fiber-optic type LDA system. This LDA system is composed of a 5 W Argon-ion laser, two optics in back-scatter mode, three BSA's, a PC, and a three-dimensional automatic traversing system. A kind of paraffin fog is used for laser particles in this study. Mean velocity profiles around an axial fan along the downstream radial distance show that the streamwise and the tangential components exist as a predominant velocity and have the maximum value at the radial distance ratio 0.8, while the radial component has a small scale distribution and its flow direction is inward except a part of blade tip. The turbulent intensity profiles show that the radial component exists the most greatly. And also the turbulent kinetic energy shows about 60% as a maximum value at the radial distance ratio 0.9. Moreover, the Reynolds shear stresses do not exist at upstream flow, but the streamwise and the radial components of them show about 20% as a maximum value at the radial distance ratio 0.9 at downstream flow.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.181-188
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• 2004

The frequency characteristics in an axial flow fan operating at a design and three off-design operating conditions have been investigated by measuring the velocity fluctuation of a tip leakage vortex and a wake flow. Two hot-wire probe sensors rotating with the fan rotor. a fixed and a moving ones, were introduced to obtain a cross-correlation coefficient between two sensors as well as the fluctuating velocity. The results show that the spectral peaks due to the fluctuating velocity near the rotor tip are mainly observed in the reverse flow region of higher flow rates than those in the peak pressure operating condition. However, no peak frequency presents near the rotor tip for near stall condition. Detailed wake flow just downstream of the rotor blade was also measured by the rotating hot-wire sensor. The peak frequency of a high velocity fluctuation due to Karman vortex shedding in the wake region is mainly observed at the higher flow rate condition than that in the design point.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.883-892
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• 2003

The experiment using three-dimensional laser Dopperr velocimetery (LDV) measurements and the computation using the Reynolds stress model of the commercial code, FLUENT, were conducted to give a clear understanding on the structure of tip leakage flow in a forward-swept axial-flow fan operating at the maximum efficiency condition. The tip leakage vortex was generated near the position of the minimum wall static pressure, which was located at approximately 12% chord downstream from the leading edge of blade suction side, and developed along the centerline of the pressure trough within the blade passages. A reverse flow between the blade tip region and the casing, induced by tip leakage vortex, acted as a blockage on the through-flow. As a result, high momentum flux was observed below the tip leakage vortex. As the tip leakage vortex proceeded to the aft part of the blade passage, the strength of tip leakage vortex decreased due to the strong interaction with the through-flow and casing boundary layer, and the diffusion of tip leakage vortex caused by high turbulence. In comparison with LDV measurement data, the computed results predicted the complex viscous flow patterns inside the tip region, including the locus of tip leakage vortex center, in a reliable level.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.362-373
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• 2002

A stereoscopic PIV (SPIV) measurement system based on the translation configuration was developed and applied to the flow behind a forward-swept axial-fan. Measurement of three orthogonal velocity components is essential for flow analysis of three-dimensional flows such as flow around a fan or propeller. In this study, the translation configuration was adopted to calculate the out-of-plane velocity component from 2-D PIV data obtained from two CCD cameras. The error caused by the out-of-plane motion was estimated by direct comparison of the 2-D PIV and 3-D SPIV results that measured from the particle images captured simultaneously. The comparison shows that the error ratio is relatively high in the region of higher out-of-plane motion near the axial fan blade. The turbulence intensity measured by the 2-D PIV method is bigger by about 5.8% in maximum compared with that of the 3-D SPIV method. The phase-averaged velocity field results show that the wake behind an axial fan has a periodic flow structure with respect to the blade phase and the characteristic flow structure is shifted downstream in the next phase.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 1997

In this paper, we investigated the heating performance and the basic characteristics required for normal combustion of kerosene fan heater. And also the iso-velocity contours and the iso-temperature contours of hot gas discharged from the exit of kerosene fan heater were analyzed. The experiment was carried out with kerosene fan heater attached to the blow-down-type subsonic wind tunnel with a test section of $240mm{\times}240mm{\times}1200mm$. The purpose of this paper was to obtain the basic data for new design from conventional kerosene fan heater. Consequently it was found that (i) the pressure ratio $P_2/P_1$ had a comparatively constant value of 0.844 according to the increase of the revolution of turbo fan, (ii) the primary excess air ratio had a range of $0.84{\sim}1.11$ during normal combustion, and (iii) the heating performance of kerosene fan heater had a range of $1,494{\sim}3,852kcal/hr$.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.83-88
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• 2004

In this study, the flow and thermal performance of the heat sink and fan-sink were experimentally studied to predict the operating condition of the fan-sink. The experiments of the flow and thermal resistance of the heat sink with various inlet blockage, which were occurred by the shapes of the axial fans, were conducted for the proof of the effects of the inlet blockages. The greater the inlet blockage of the heat sink, the higher the pressure drop and lower the thermal resistance of the heat sink will be. The operating point of the fan-sink was predicted by the pressure drop curve with the inlet blockage, which was corresponded to the selected fan and the fan performance curve, and verified by the performance test of the fan-sink. The predicted operating point of the fan-sink had good agreement with the result of the performance test of the fan-sink within $0.7\%$ of the volume flow rates. Measured thermal resistance of the fan-sink was equivalent to that of the heat sink with the same inlet blockage of the fan-sink. It was shown that the heat transfer characteristics of the heat sink were influenced by the flow interaction between the selected fan and the heat sink. To improve the thermal resistance of the heat sink, it is necessary to consider appropriate flow patterns of the fan outlet entering into the heat sink.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.388-395
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• 2000

Axial fans are widely used in heavy machines due to their ability to produce high flow rate for cooling of engines. At the same time, the noise generated by these fans causes one of the most serious problems. This work is concerned with the low noise technique of discrete frequency noise. The prediction model, which allowed the calculation of acoustic pressure at the blade passing frequency and it's harmonics, has been developed by Farrasat. This theory is founded upon the acoustic radiation of unsteady forces acting on blade. To calculate the unsteady resultant force over the fan blade. Time-Marching Free-Wake Method are used. The ideas of low noise technique are obtained from Blade-Momentum Methods. In this paper, the discussion is confined to the performance and discrete noise of axial fan in heavy equipments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.645-650
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• 2002

In this paper, new concept, low noise axial fan was developed. The fan was designed to operate at high-pressure condition inside the refrigerator. This fan - we call it Alpha fan - has small turbo blades at trailing edge of axial fan. These turbo blades make alpha fan operate at high pressure and low noise condition. In order to find out the optimal value of design parameters, 6-sigma method was used. The design parameters are ratio between inner and outer diameter, Height, Install angle and Install position of turbo blade. Optimal value of turbo blade was found out and the noise generated from this fan is reduced about 3dB(A).