An Experimental Study for Noise Reduction of the Cross-Flow Fan of the Room Air-Conditioners

Present study explains some experimental results on the aerodynamic noise of the cross-flow fan usually installed in the indoor unit of the room air-conditioners and provides a simple reduction method of radiating sound to decrease the total noise level. The spectra of the noise of the cross-flow fan were analyzed by the spectral decomposition method to characterize the generated sound. The unsteady fluctuating flow field was also measured using the I-type hot-wire probe. Comparing the spectral characteristics of the sound and the flow velocity, a useful noise reduction method was proposed, which bounds the region with a fence where the flow fluctuations were noticeably changed in the same fashion as the source spectral distribution functions vary. To validate the proposed method for reducing noise generated by the cross-flow fan, the sound pressure levels of the cross-flow fan system were compared with and without the bounding fence for various flow rates.