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Effect of serrated trailing-edge blades on aerodynamic noise of an axial fan

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Abstract

A bionic geometric modification inspired by the trailing-edge serrations of owl wings provides a new approach for controlling the aerodynamic noise of rotary fluid machinery. The effect of different serrated trailing-edges (STEs) on aerodynamic performance and noise of a single-stage variable-pitch axial fan was numerically investigated using steady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes and large eddy simulation model, respectively. Results show that STEs could improve fan efficiency at the design and low flow rates, and significantly reduce the noise in the middle- and low-frequency as well as suppress the pressure pulsation of airflow. STEs split large-scale vortices into small ones by intensifying the turbulent flow mixing. STEs with appropriate serration parameters improve the spanwise distribution of the vortex, reduce the span dimension of wake vortices, and induce wake vortices distribution to be more uniform. The innovation of this paper is that a novel blade with partial serrations is presented for the realization of the apparent noise reduction and more preferred aerodynamic performance of the axial fan by improving serration parameters and rearranging the region of the serration.

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Abbreviations

A :

Cross-sectional area, m2

C :

Airfoil chord length, mm

Cv :

Flow rate coefficient

f :

Passing frequency of rotating blades, Hz

h :

Serration height, mm

L P :

Sound pressure level, dB

P 0 :

Reference sound pressure, 2×10−5 Pa

P st :

Static pressure, Pa

P t :

Total pressure rise, Pa

q v :

Volumetric flow rate, m3/s

u :

Circumferential velocity, m/s

η :

Fan efficiency, %

λ :

Serration width, mm

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 11602085).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hebei Key Laboratory of Low Carbon and High Efficiency Power Generation Technology, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, China

    Xuemin Ye & Chunxi Li

  2. School of Energy, Power and Mechanical Engineering, National Thermal Power Engineering & Technology Research Center, Key Laboratory of Condition Monitoring and Control for Power Plant Equipment of Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Nan Zheng

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, China

    Ruixing Zhang

Authors
  1. Xuemin Ye
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  2. Nan Zheng
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  4. Chunxi Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chunxi Li.

Additional information

Xuemin Ye is a Professor of Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University (Baoding campus), China. He received his B.E., M.S. and Ph.D. in Thermal Energy Engineering from North China Electric Power University, in 1996, 1999, and 2003. His research interests include fluid machinery and turbomachinery, liquid film flows and droplet dynamics.

Nan Zheng is a Ph.D. student at the School of Energy, Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, China. He received his Bachelor’s in 2015. His research interests include fluid machinery and turbomachinery, multi-energy complementary distributed system, cooling, heating and power multi-generation.

Ruixing Zhang is a Ph.D. student at North China Electric Power University. He received his Master’s in Thermal Engineering in 2020; his Bachelor’s was in 2017. At present, he is engaged in the research of complex system modeling and proxy model optimization algorithm.

Chunxi Li is a Professor of Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University (Baoding campus), China. She received her B.E., M.S. and Ph.D. in Thermal Energy Engineering from North China Electric Power University, in 1996, 1999, and 2011. Her topics of interest include fluid machinery, liquid film flows and droplet dynamics.

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Ye, X., Zheng, N., Zhang, R. et al. Effect of serrated trailing-edge blades on aerodynamic noise of an axial fan. J Mech Sci Technol 36, 2937–2948 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-022-0526-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-022-0526-7

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