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Effect of meridional shape on performance of axial-flow fan

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Abstract

In this study, the effect of impeller meridional shape on the performance of axial-flow fan is investigated by CFD method. Three axialflow fan impellers with different meridional shapes are designed. The blade angle, blade stacking condition and other structure factors of the impellers are all remained consistent. The performance curves of the three impellers are calculated and compared. In almost all the interested flowrate range, the impeller W3 with an inverted-isosceles-trapezoid meridional shape and the longer blade camber achieves both the higher pressure rise and the higher efficiency than the other two impellers. A two-stage axial-flow fan designed on basis of W3 is manufactured and tested. Test results show good agreement with the calculated performance curves. Further, analyses of the CFD results are conducted to reveal the reasons for the different performance. A newly-defined Local Euler head (LEH) is introduced to represent the distribution of the major Euler work in the axial-flow fan. And the LEH distributions in the three impellers are obtained. W3 achieves the highest LEH at blade Trailing edge (TE), because it could perform the most Euler work to the fluid with the longest blade camber. Then losses in the impellers are analyzed by means of the entropy generation. Among the losses in impeller, the tip leakage loss and endwall friction loss are dominated at design flowrate. The generation condition of the tip leakage loss shows significant differences among the three impellers. And the whole power loss in impeller of W3 is slightly higher than those of the other two models. However, the power loss difference among the three impellers is negligible. And due to the highest shaft power, the efficiency loss of W3 is the lowest of all.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Xin Chen, Linlin Cao, Peng Yan, Peng Wu & Dazhuan Wu

  2. The State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power Transmission and Control, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Dazhuan Wu

Authors
  1. Xin Chen
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  2. Linlin Cao
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  3. Peng Yan
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  4. Peng Wu
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  5. Dazhuan Wu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peng Wu.

Additional information

This paper was presented at the ISFMFE 2016, LOTTE City Hotel, Jeju, Korea, October 18–22, 2016. Recommended by Guest Editor Hyung Hee Cho.

Xin Chen is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Institute of Process Equipment, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University (China). His research and development interests are design optimization and vibration control of fluid machinery.

Peng Wu is currently a Lecturer in the Institute of Process Equipment, Zhejiang University (China). He obtained his B.Sc. degree in 2008 and his Ph.D. in 2013 from Zhejiang University (China). His major research interests include optimal design, transient flow and vibration in fluid machinery.

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Chen, X., Cao, L., Yan, P. et al. Effect of meridional shape on performance of axial-flow fan. J Mech Sci Technol 31, 5141–5151 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-1008-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-1008-1

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