• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.819-828
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• 2001

The operating point of a small-sized axial fan is strongly dependent upon the system resistance. Therefore, the turbulent flow characteristics around a small-sized axial fan may change significantly according to the operating point. This study represents three-dimensional turbulent flow characteristics around a small-sized axial fan measured at the ideal design point $\phi$=0.25, which is equivalent to the maximum total efficiency point, by using three dimensional fiber-optic type LDA system. This LDA system is composed of a 5 W Argon-ion laser, two optics in back-scatter mode, three BSAs, a PC, and a three-dimensional automatic traversing system. A kind of paraffin fluid is used to supply particles by means of fog generator. Mean velocity profiles downstream of a small-sized axial fan along the radial distance show that the streamwise and the tangential components exist in a predominant manner, while the radial component has a small scale distribution and shows the inflection which its flow direction is inward or outward. Moreover, the turbulent intensity profiles show that the radial component exists the most greatly among turbulent energies.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.371-376
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• 2001

The operating point of a small-sized axial fan for refrigerator is strongly dependent upon the system resistance. Therefore, the turbulent flow characteristics around a small-sized axial fan may change significantly according to the operating point. This study represents three-dimensional turbulent flow characteristics around a small-sized axial fan measured at the four operating points such as $\varphi=0.1$, 0.18, 0.25 and 0.32 by using fiber-optic type LDA system. This LDA system is composed of a 5 W Argon-ion laser, two optics in back-scatter mode, three BSA's, a PC, and a three-dimensional automatic traversing system. A kind of paraffin fluid is utilized for supplying particles by means of fog generator. Mean velocity profiles downstream of a small-sized axial fan along the radial distance show that both the streamwise and the tangential components exist predominantly in downstream except $\varphi=0.1$ and have a maximum value at the radial distance ratio of about 0.8, but the radial component, which its velocity is relatively small, is acting role that only turns flow direction to the outside or the central part of axial fan. Moreover, all of the velocity components downstream at $\varphi=0.1$ show much smaller than those upstream due to the static pressure rise at the low-flowrate region.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.83-88
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• 2004

In this study, the flow and thermal performance of the heat sink and fan-sink were experimentally studied to predict the operating condition of the fan-sink. The experiments of the flow and thermal resistance of the heat sink with various inlet blockage, which were occurred by the shapes of the axial fans, were conducted for the proof of the effects of the inlet blockages. The greater the inlet blockage of the heat sink, the higher the pressure drop and lower the thermal resistance of the heat sink will be. The operating point of the fan-sink was predicted by the pressure drop curve with the inlet blockage, which was corresponded to the selected fan and the fan performance curve, and verified by the performance test of the fan-sink. The predicted operating point of the fan-sink had good agreement with the result of the performance test of the fan-sink within $0.7\%$ of the volume flow rates. Measured thermal resistance of the fan-sink was equivalent to that of the heat sink with the same inlet blockage of the fan-sink. It was shown that the heat transfer characteristics of the heat sink were influenced by the flow interaction between the selected fan and the heat sink. To improve the thermal resistance of the heat sink, it is necessary to consider appropriate flow patterns of the fan outlet entering into the heat sink.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1424-1429
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• 2004

To seek the fan operating point on a cooling system with fans, it is very important to determine the system impedance and it has been usually examined with the fan tester(wind tunnel) based on ASHRAE standard and AMCA standard. This leads to a large investment in time and cost, because it could not be executed until the system is made actually. Therefore it is necessary to predict the system impedance curve through numerical analysis so that we could reduce the measurement effort. This paper presents how the system impedance curve (pressure drop curve) is computed by CFD in substitute for experiment. In reverse order to the experimental principle of the fan tester, pressure difference was adopted first as inlet and outlet boundary conditions of the system and then flow rate was calculated.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2016

This paper handled an investigation on the turbulent flow characteristics of three-dimensional small-size axial fan(SSAF) according to operating loads. Also, it was carried out by unsteady-state, incompressible and three-dimensional large eddy simulation(LES). The downstream flow type of SSAF is changed from axial flow to radial flow around the beginning of stall region at the aerodynamic performance curve. Axial mean velocity component largely grows around blade tip at the operating point of A to D, but transverse and vertical mean velocity components as well as Reynolds shear stresses highly develop around blade tip at the operating point of E to H. On the other hand, the peak value of turbulent kinetic energy developed around blade tip shows the highest at the operating point of E.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1389-1394
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• 2004

Experiments were done for the unsteady flow in a counter rotating axial flow fan near peak efficiency and stall point. Flow fields in a counter rotating axial flow fan were measured at cross-sectional planes of the upstream and downstream of each rotor. Cross sectional passage flow patterns were investigated through the acquired data by the $45^{\circ}$ inclined hot-wire. Comparison of flow characteristics between two different operating conditions such as tip vortex, secondary flow and turbulence intensity were performed through the analyses of axial, radial and tangential velocity distributions. As a result, tip vortex and secondary flows are enforced and measured obviously at stall point.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2017

The large-eddy simulation(LES) was carried out to evaluate the drag and static pressure acting on the blade surface of a small-size axial fan(SSAF) under the condition of unsteady-state, incompressible fluid and three-dimensional coordination. The axial component of drag coefficient increases with the increase of operating load, but the radial components have negligible sizes regardless of operating loads. Otherwise, the static pressures acting on the blade surfaces of SSAF show different distributions around the operating point of D equivalent to the stall. Also, with the increase of operating load, the static pressures acting on the pressure and suction surfaces of blade concentrate at the tips and leading-edges as a whole.

• 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.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.64-70
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• 2016

The unsteady-state, incompressible and three-dimensional large-eddy simulation(LES) was carried out to evaluate the vorticity distribution of a small-size axial fan(SSAF). The X-component vorticity profiles developed around blade tips turn from axial to radial, and diminish the density of distribution according to the increase of static pressure. Otherwise, the Z-component vorticity profiles evenly develop at the region larger than the half radial distance of blade at the operating points of A and B, partly at the trailing-edge region of blade and radially over bellmouth according to the increase of static pressure.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1377-1382
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• 2004

Flow fields in a half ducted propeller fan have been investigated by three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations and a vortex core identification technique. The simulation at the design operating condition shows that the tip vortex onset point is located at 30 percent tip chord of the suction surface on the blade tip. There is no interaction between the tip vortex and the adjacent blade, so that the tip vortex smoothly convects to the rotor exit. However, the high vorticity in the tip vortex causes the wake and the tip leakage flow to be twined around the tip vortex and to interact with the pressure surface of the adjacent blade. This flow behavior corresponds well with experimental results by Laser Doppler Velocimetry. On the contrary, the simulation at the low-flowrate operating condition shows that the tip vortex onset point is located at the 60 percent tip chord of the suction surface. In contrast to the design operating condition, the tip vortex grows almost tangential direction, and impinges directly on the pressure surface of the adjacent blade.