• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.395-398
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• 2009

Currently, a new generation of ducted fan UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is under development for a wide range of inspection, investigation and combat missions as well as for a variety of civil roles like traffic monitoring, meteorological studies, hazard mitigation etc. The current study presents extensive results obtained experimentally in order to investigate the tip clearance effects on performance characteristics of a ducted fan for small UAV systems. Three ducted fans having different tip clearance gap and with same rotor size were examined under three different yawed conditions of calibrated slanted hot-wire probe. Three dimensional velocity flow fields were measured from hub to tip at outlet of the ducted fan. The analysis of data were done by PLEAT (Phase locked Ensemble Averaging Technique) and three non-linear differential equations were solved simultaneously by using Newton -Rhapson numerical method. Flow field characteristics such as tip vortex and secondary flow were confirmed through axial, radial and tangential velocity contour plots. At the same time, the effects of tip clearance on axial thrust and input power were also investigated by using wind tunnel measurement system. For enhancing the performance of ducted fan, tip clearance level should be as small as possible.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1997.02a
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• pp.117-124
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• 1997

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2000

Performance and flow characteristics of a small forward swept propeller fan for home refrigerators are studied experimentally. An unusual discontinuity is observed in the performance curve of the fan. Mean flow fields measured with as-hole Pitot probe reveal that the flow is axial at the high flow rate and radial at the low flow rate. The flow structure changes abruptly across the discontinuity. Unsteady flow measurements with a set of hot-wire probes indicate that near the discontinuity a single-cell stall rotates at 40% speed of the fan speed, while away from the discontinuity the flow shows periodic variation corresponding to the blade passage frequency. Phase-lock averaged flow fields measured with a triple-sensor hot-wire probe show that there appears radially inward flow over the pressure side of the blade and the outward passage flow over the tip.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.25-29
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• 2005

Axial fan is used for the supplement of large amount of flows. Axial blowers show relatively high efficiency of the system. The present model of axial fan is for cooling a condenser in an air-conditioning unit that exhibits tendency toward compact size. In order to realize the compact model, the width of an axial blade should be cut down in axial distance. Main interest lies on the performance of the axial blowing system with blades having shorter chord length. One of the important design parameters for axial fan is the shape of the blades of it. Design of blades includes the cross-sectional shape and its dimension, including the chord length. We consider two types of blades; one is NACA airfoil with normal chord length and the other is with shortening chord length by $10\%$ of normal airfoil. Axial blower with the modified blades is essential for the compact model of an air-conditioner. The other design parameters are same in the two cases. Using a wind tunnel follows ASHRAE standards carries out evaluation of performance of the system. Detail of flows around the blades is prepared by velocity measurements using PIV. According to performance estimation, the axial blower with short chord blade show quite close to the performance results, including flow rate and pressure rise, of the standard one. The reason of the two similar results is that the flowpatterns depend on Reynolds number based on the chord length of a blade. In this investigation, the critical chord length is found, in which the flows near the airfoil are so unstable and the performance of the system is decreased. A series of figures is for the detail information on the flow.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.103-111
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• 2024

Axial-flow fans are used to transport fluids in relatively low-pressure flow regimes, and a variety of design variables are employed. The tip geometry of an axial fan plays a dominant role in its flow and noise performance, and two of the most prominent flow phenomena are the tip vortex and the tip leakage vortex that occur at the tip of the blade. Various studies have been conducted to control these three-dimensional flow structures, and winglet geometries have been developed in the aircraft field to suppress wingtip vortices and increase efficiency. In this study, a numerical and experimental study was conducted to analyze the effect of winglet geometry applied to an axial fan blade for an air conditioner outdoor unit. The unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation and the FfocwsWilliams and Hawkings (FW-H) equation were numerically solved based on computational fluid dynamics techniques to analyze the three-dimensional flow structure and flow noise numerically, and the validity of the numerical method was verified by comparison with experimental results. The differences in the formation of tip vortex and tip leakage vortex depending on the winglet geometry were compared through a three-dimensional flow field, and the resulting aerodynamic performance was quantitatively compared. In addition, the effect of winglet geometry on flow noise was evaluated by numerically simulating noise based on the predicted flow field. A prototype of the target fan model was built, and flow and noise experiments were conducted to evaluate the actual performance quantitatively.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.515-523
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• 2020

This study aims to improve the flow and noise performances of an axial-flow fan for cooling the machine room in a refrigerator by using airfoil-cascade analysis and surface ridge shape. First, the experimental evaluations using a fan performance tester and an anechoic chamber are performed to analyze the flow and noise performances of the existing fan system. Then, the corresponding flow and noise performances are numerically assessed using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques and the Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings (FW-H) equation, and the validity of numerical results are confirmed through their comparisons with the experimental results. The analysis for the flow of a cascade of airfoils constructed from the existing fan blades is performed, and the pitch angles for the maximum lift-to-drag ratio are determined. The improved flow performance of the new fan applied with the optimum pitch angles is confirmed. Then, the fan blades with surface ridges on their pressure sides are devised, and the reduction of aerodynamic noise of the ridged fan is numerically confirmed. Finally, the prototype of the final fan model is manufactured, and improvements in the flow and noise performances of the prototype are experimentally confirmed.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.7-16
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• 2007

An axial-type fan which operates at the relative total pressure of 671Pa and static pressure of 560Pa with the flow rate of $416.6m^3/min$ is developed with an optimization technique based on the gradient method. Prior to the optimization of fan blade, a three-dimensional axial-type fan blade is designed based on the free-vortex method along the radial direction. Twelve design variables are applied to the optimization of the rotor blade, and one design variable is selected for optimizing a stator which is located behind of the rotor and is used to support a fan driving motor. The total and static pressure are applied to the restriction condition with the operating flowrate on the design point, and the efficiency is chosen as the response variable to be maximized. Through these procedures, an initial axial-fan blade designed by the free vortex method is modified to increase the efficiency with the satisfaction of the operating condition. The optimized fan is tested to compare the aerodynamic performance with an imported same class fan. The test result shows that the optimized fan operates with the satisfaction of restriction conditions, but the imported fan cannot. From the experimental and numerical test, they show that this optimization method improves the fan efficiency and operating pressures of a fan designed by the classical fan design method.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.288-291
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• 2008

Recently, the importance and necessity of engineering analysis has shown a steady growth. However, researchers working in small and medium enterprises know little about the usefulness of engineering analysis and suffer from lack of technical knowledge. Axial fan is air fluid machinery in various fields of industry such as automobile, electric appliance, and heavy machinery. It is also a time and budget consuming equipment to develop the axial fan through physical experiments. In order to overcome this problem, we have designed and developed a web-base automated simulator for axial fan's fluid analysis using supercomputer. Automated simulator means that all of processes for engineering analysis including pre-process, solving, and post-process can be performed automatically without user intervention after transferring fan model(CAD files) made by user. After executing the simulator with some parameters, user can receive the report including pressure P and flow rate Q. In this paper, we introduce the architecture of our easy and efficient automated engineering analysis simulator, related techniques and result of development.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1107-1114
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• 2004

Axial fans are widely used for automotive engine cooling device due to their ability to produce high flow rate to keep engine cool. At the same time, the noise generated by these fans causes one of the most serious problems. Especially, engine cooling fan noise in idle condition of a car is noticeable. Therefore. the high efficient and low-noise fan is seriously needed. When a new fan system is designed, system resistance and non-uniform inflow are the key factors to get the high performance and low noise fan system. In this study, aerodynamic and acoustic calculations are carried out on the automotive cooling fan and system. Effects of various design parameters are studied through the free wake analysis and experiments. Better performance and noise characteristic are obtained for the new design fan using the methodology. Furthermore through the modification of the fan system geometry parameters, the fan system produce more flow rate and become less noisy.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.30-36
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• 2008

Axial fan without static blades requires the duct as a guidance for unskewed inflows. This work examined the geometric effects of a duct guided the in and out flows through an impeller. The present methodologies are computational predictions with parallel work by experimental validation. Several different positions of a rotor in a duct are proposed for plausible models of a rotor inside a duct. The optimum axial position of an impeller in a duct is found at the #4 model where the impeller lies on the inlet edge of a circular duct. The model shows a wider inlet area. The result of computational prediction is in good agreement with experiment measurement.