• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.12a
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• pp.129-136
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• 2000

Centrifugal fans are widely used and the noise generated by these machines causes one of the most serious problems. In general, the centrifugal fan noise is often dominated by tones at BPF(blade passage frequency) and its higher harmonics. This is a consequence of the strong interaction between the flow discharged from the impeller and the cutoff in the casing. However, only a few researches have been carried out on predicting the noise because of the difficulty in obtaining detailed Information about the flow field and casing effects on noise radiation. The objective of this study is to develop a prediction method for the unsteady flow field and the acoustic pressure field of a centrifugal fan, and to calculate the effects of small vanes that are attached in original impeller - Splitter impeller. We assume that the impeller rotates with a constant angular velocity and the flow field around the impeller is incompressible and inviscid. So, a discrete vortex method (DVM) is used to model the centrifugal fan and to calculate the flow field. The force of each element on the blade is calculated by the unsteady Bernoulli equation. Lowson's method is used to predict the acoustic source. The splitter impeller changes the acoustic characteristics as well as performance. Two-splitter type impeller and splitter impeller which splitter locates in jet region are good for acoustic characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.737-742
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• 2011

Because of complex structure of inlet and outlet flows, the performance of centrifugal fans used in a household refrigerator is affected by many parameters of duct system surrounding the fans. In this paper, the performance of a centrifugal fan is numerically analysed according to shapes of inlet bell-mouth. To improve performance of the centrifugal fan, some design parameters are selected for comparison. On a basis of these comparison, optimum shape of inlet bell-mouth is proposed to maximise the flow rate of the fan.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.12a
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• pp.42-48
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• 1998

Numerical study is presented for the analysis of three-dimensional incompressible turbulent flows in multiblade centrifugal fan. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with standard k - $\epsilon$ turbulence model are transformed to non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinates, and are discretized with finite volume approximations. Linear Upwind Differencing Scheme(LUDS) is used to approximate the convection terms in the governing equations. SIMPLEC algorithm is used as a velocity-pressure correction procedure. The computational area is divided into three blocks; core, impeller and scroll, which are linked by multi-block method. The flow inside of the fan is regarded as steady flow, and mathematical formula established from the cascade theory and empirical coefficient are employed to simulate tile flow through the impeller. From comparisons between the computational results and the experimental data, the validity of the mathematical formula for the blade forces was examined and good results were obtained qualitatively. Hence, we can get the flow characteristics of multi-blade centrifugal fan and it will be a corner stone of the development of the multiblade centrifugal fan.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.82-87
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• 2007

A cleaner has trouble with too much noise and power consumption. To solve these problems, the investigation for motors, which are the main component of vacuum cleaner, is required. However, it is difficult to analyze the flow by the experimental means because of the high speed of the fan rotation ranging from 30,000 rpm to 50,000 rpm. Moreover it takes much time to perform the numerical simulation for the flow. In this research, it is aimed to analyse the flow through the centrifugal fan which is believed to be a main noise source, by the computational method. The efficiency of the centrifugal fan is affected by friction loss, shock loss and so on. Those losses depend on factors like the velocity of impeller, blade shape and etc. Accordingly, the influence of the shape of impeller on the flow is investigated in this study. The computational analysis was done by changing impeller shapes. The flow around the centrifugal fan is simulated by applying the moving mesh. To verify the validity of the computation results, the air flow rate and the pressure field to the cleaner is compared with the experimental data. All simulations are performed by using commercial code SC/Tetra. The calculated results show good agreement with the experimental ones qualitatively and it is believed to be promising to use computational simulation in the improvement of the vacuum cleaner performance.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.522-525
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• 2008

A vacuum cleaner is the widely used home equipment. However, it has a trouble with too much power consumption. Most losses occur at the centrifugal fan. To remedy this trouble the investigation of motor, which is the main component of vacuum cleaner, is required. The flow characteristics around the high-speed rotating centrifugal fan which is influenced by the very low inlet pressure is quite different from a commonly used fan. Hence it is quite difficult to analyze the flow by the experimental means or by the numerical simulation. In this research, it is aimed to improve the air-suction performance of a vacuum cleaner through the flow analysis around a motor. The efficiency of the centrifugal fan is affected by blade shape, blade number, blade pitch, etc. The influence of the shape of impeller on the flow is investigated in this study. The flow around the centrifugal fan is simulated by applying the moving mesh. To verify the validity of the computation results, the air flow rate and the pressure field to the cleaner is compared with the experimental data. All simulations are performed by using commercial code SC/Tetra. The calculated results show good agreement with the experimental ones and it is believed to be promising to use computational simulation in the improvement of the vacuum cleaner performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1165-1174
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• 2001

The objective of this study is to understand the generation mechanism of sound and to develop a prediction method for the acoustic pressure field of a centrifugal fan. If the fan is operating at the free field without the casing, the acoustic analogy is a good method to predict the acoustic of the fan. But, the casing gives a dominant effect to the radiated sound field and the scattering effect of casing should be considered. So, in this paper the Kirchhoff-BEM is developed, which can consider the scattering effect of the rigid body. In order to consider the scattering and diffraction effects owing to the casing, BEM is introduced. The source of BEM is newly developed, so the sound field of the centrifugal fan can be obtained. In order to compare the predicted one with experimental data, a centrifugal impeller and a wedge are used in the numerical calculation and the results are compared with the experimental data. Reasonable results are obtained not only for the peak frequencies but also for the amplitudes of the tonal sound. The radiated acoustic field shows the diffraction and scattering effects of the wedge clearly.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.69-75
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• 2001

A new method to calculate the aeroacoustic pressure of a centrifugal fan was developed The fan consists of an impeller, diffuser and circular casing. Due to the high rotating velocity and the small gap between the impeller and diffuser, the centrifugal fan makes very high noise level at BPF and its harmonic frequencies. The aeroacoustic pressure is calculated acoustic analogy In this paper, only dipole term is considered in the equation. The acoustics generated by moving impeller and stationary diffuser is calculated separately. The unsteady flow field data is calculated by the vortex method The predicted acoustic pressure agrees very well to the measured data. The difference of the two is smaller than 3dBA.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.69-72
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• 2004

The performance of the centrifugal fan in a vacuum cleaner is affected by the hydraulic loss, such as the friction loss, the recirculation loss and the impact loss etc., Those losses depend on the rotational speed of the impeller, the inlet and exit widths, the relative flow angles to the blade, the number of the blades and the geometry of the shroud and the diffuser. These parameters are complicatedly interrelated, so the experimental means in analyzing the fans are rather limited. In the present study, the flow analysis are done numerically by changing the relevant fan parameters. A commercial code, STAR-CD, is used for the calculations. It is seen from the analyses that the computational results agree well with the experimental results. The results obtained can be used for the basic design of a centrifugal fan.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.999-1003
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• 1992

Because of low noise and small size with huge capacity, a centrifugal fan is widely used for ventilation, air-conditioner and so on, which are very near to human life. Because of the complexity of its vibration and noise generation mechanics, most of researches on them are based on experimental methods. This study is to characterize the centrifugal fan noise and vibration. It is considered that noise is composed of the structural vibration noise and the air flow induced aerodynamic noise. To decouple the structural vibration noise the centrifugal fan is masked with an adhesive tape, such that air blowing is prohibited thus only the structural vibration noise is extracted. The noise level and characteristics in the frequency domain are verified and compared with those of total mixed one. This study shows some significant results that the structural vibration noise has relatively narrow band power spectrum compared with the total mixed one and has a strong periodicity. The sound level is lowered about 5dB by the removal of air flow with the masked fan for an air-conditioner used in this study.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.16 no.5 s.110
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• pp.485-494
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• 2006

The state-of-the-art of low-noise fan design usually includes the consideration of optimal sound level and sound quality. The influential design parameters of the noise level by the centrifugal fan were selected based on the preliminary test. The centrifugal fans were designed according to the experiment plan method by specifying the selected design parameters. The experiment with these machined mock-up's of centrifugal impellers suggested the major design parameters among many, having impacts upon the indices of sound quality (e.g. loudness, sharpness, roughness and fluctuation strength) at the same operation point. With the response surface method, the major design parameters selected thereafter were analyzed to estimate each contribution upon the sound quality of the centrifugal fan, and the optimal values were drawn by the consideration of the sound quality levels and their regression equations. In addition, the validity of the regression equations was numerically verified by means of the coefficient of determination. Furthermore, the mechanism by which the centrifugal fan impeller influences the determinants of its sound quality was suggested.