A Study on Resonance and Interference of a Cooling Fan Assembly by Using FEM

유한요소법을 이용한 쿨링팬의 진동 및 간섭에 관한 연구

A CFA(Cooling Fan Assembly) is composed of a fan, motor and shroud, which is at the back of the automotive radiator. By forcing the wind to pass, the CFA controls the cooling performance of the radiator. The noise and vibration of the CFA may be primarily due to the resonance between the CFA and engine. The Interference among the fan, shroud and radiator by deformation is considered when the CFA is designed. In this paper, in order to analyze the structural vibration of the CFA for automobiles, a finite element model of the CFA is established by using a commercial FEM code. After the finite element modeling, the natural frequencies and the mode shapes are obtained from the FE analysis. The natural frequencies are obtained from the vibration test as well. Then, the results of the vibration test are compared with those of the FE analysis. The natural frequencies obtained by experiment have a great similarity to the results from FE model. We have confirmed the validity of the FE model and verify the structural safety for the resonance. The stress and displacements are obtained from FE analysis. We have confirmed the safety for the interference and failure.