• International Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2021

Contra-rotating fan is comprised of two rotors which are rotating in the opposite direction. The fan stages are named rotor-1 and rotor-2. Benefits from the use of contra rotation are in terms of better efficiency and improved thrust to weight ratio. Failure of contra-rotating fan stage blade in-service results in safety risks, repair costs, and revenue losses. This paper focuses on the vibration analysis and one way fluid-structure interaction of high aspect ratio, low speed contrarotating fan rotors. Modal analysis and modal pre-stress analysis of contra-rotating fan rotors were carried out to calculate the natural frequencies, One way fluid-structure interaction (FSI) was carried out where the computational analysis of the blades was performed using ANSYS CFX. The boundary conditions for CFD analysis were considered from the actual experimental velocity flow field at the inlet and pressure outlet. Based on the results obtained from the CFD analysis, the structural analysis such as deformation and Von-Misses stresses was carried out by using the finite element method (FEM) with ANSYS. The results provide necessary guidelines for the safe running of the contra-rotating fan. The analysis also will be helpful to understand the change of flow behavior due to a rotor deformation.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.235-242
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• 2011

An application of contra-rotating rotors, in which a rear rotor is in tandem with a front one and these rotors rotate in the opposite direction each other, has been proposed against a demand for developing higher specific speed axial flow pump. One prototype rotors, which we have designed with a conventional method, has given the positive slope of head characteristic curve especially in the rear rotor. It is necessary to understand the internal flow behavior in the rear rotor to establish the design guideline for achieving higher and more reliable performance. In the present study, we carried out the experimental investigations of the internal flow field of the rear rotor, especially at the partial flow rate, by Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) for the main flow and the limiting streamlines observation on rotor surfaces for the boundary layer flows.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.130-141
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• 2014

As a high specific speed pump, the contra-rotating axial flow pump with two rotors rotating reversely has been proved with higher hydraulic and cavitation performance, while in our previous researches, the potential interaction between two blade rows was distinctly observed for our prototype rotors designed with equal rotational speed for both front and rear rotors. Based on the theoretical and experimental evidences, a rotational speed optimization methodology was proposed and applied in the design of a new combination of contra-rotating rotors, primarily in expectation of the optimized blade pressure distributions as well as pertinently improved hydraulic performances including cavitation performance. In the present study, given one stationary and two rotating frames in the contra-rotating rotors case, a pressure measurement concept taking account of the revolutions of both front and rear rotors simultaneously was adopted. The casing wall pressure data sampled in time domain was successfully transferred into space domain, by which the ensemble averaged blade-to-blade pressure distributions at the blade tip of two contra-rotating rotors under different operation conditions were studied. It could be seen that the rotor pair with the optimized rotational speed combination as well as work division, shows more reasonable blade-to-blade pressure distribution and well weakened potential interaction. Moreover, combining the loading curves estimated by the measured casing wall pressure, the cavitation performance of the rotor pairs with new rotational speed combination were proved to be superior to those of the prototype pairs.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2016

Contra-rotating rotors have been adopted for some of the cooling fans to meet the demand for the high pressure and large flow rate. Therefore, it is important to clarify its inlet and outlet flows by experiments for the high performance and stable operation. PIV measurements were conducted at the design and partial flow rates. In the present paper, the inlet and outlet flow conditions of the contra-rotating small-sized cooling fan with a 40mm square casing are studied by using PIV measurement. Furthermore, improvements of the flow condition and design guideline to increase the performance were discussed based on the experimental results.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.271-278
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• 2010

Small-sized axial fans are used as air cooler for electric equipments. But there is a strong demand for higher power of fans according to the increase of quantity of heat from electric devices. Therefore, higher rotational speed design is conducted, although, it causes the deterioration of efficiency and the increase of noise. Then the adoption of contrarotating rotors for the small-sized axial fan is proposed for the improvement of performance. In the present paper, the performance curves of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan with 100mm diameter are shown and the velocity distributions at a partial flow rate at the inlet and the outlet of each front and rear rotor are clarified with experimental results. Furthermore, the flow conditions between front and rear rotors of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan are investigated by numerical analysis results and causes of the performance deterioration of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan at the partial flow rate is discussed.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2013

The application of contra-rotating rotors for higher specific speed pump has been proposed in our studies, which is in principle effective for reducing the rotational speed and/or the pump size under the same specification of conventional axial flow pump. In the previous experiments of our prototype, the cavitation inception at the tip region of the rear rotor rather than that of the front rotor and the strong potential interaction from the suction surface of the rear rotor blade to the pressure surface of the front one were observed, indicating the possibility to further improve the pump performance by optimizing rotational speed combination between the two rotors. The present research aims at the design of rear rotor with lower rotational speed. Considering the fact that the incoming flow velocity defects at the tip region of the rear rotor, an integrated inflow model of 'forced vortex' and 'free vortex' is employed. The variation of maximum camber location from hub to tip as well as other related considerations are also taken into account for further performance improvement. The ideas cited above are separately or comprehensively applied in the design of three types of rear rotor, which are subsequently simulated in ANSYS CFX to evaluate the related pump performance and therefore the whole low speed design idea. Finally, the experimental validation is carried out on one type to offer further proofs for the availability of the whole design method.