Centrifugal fans are widely used in several applications, and in some cases, the noise generated by these machines has become a serious problem. The centrifugal fan noise is frequently dominated by tones at the blade passing frequency as a consequence of the strong interaction between the flow discharged from the impeller and the volute tongue. In this study, a previously published aeroacoustic prediction methodology (Cho, Y., and Moon, Y.J., 2003, “Discrete Noise Prediction of Variable Pitch Cross-Flow Fans by Unsteady Navier-Stokes Computations,” ASME J. Fluids Eng., 125, pp. 543–550) has been extended to three-dimensional turbulent flow in order to predict the noise generated by a centrifugal fan. A three-dimensional numerical simulation of the complete unsteady flow on the whole impeller-volute configuration has been carried out using the computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT®. The unsteady forces applied by the fan blades to the fluid are obtained from the data provided by the simulation. The Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings model extension of Lighthill’s analogy has been used to predict the aerodynamic noise generated by the centrifugal fan from these unsteady forces. Also, the noise generated by the fan has been measured experimentally, and the experimental results have been compared to the numerical results in order to validate the aerodynamic noise prediction methodology. Reasonable agreement has been found between the numerical and the experimental results.
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September 2008
Research Papers
Noise Prediction of a Centrifugal Fan: Numerical Results and Experimental Validation
Rafael Ballesteros-Tajadura,
Rafael Ballesteros-Tajadura
Área de Mecánica de Fluidos,
e-mail: rballest@uniovi.es
Universidad de Oviedo
, Campus de Gijón, 33271 Gijón, Spain
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Sandra Velarde-Suárez,
Sandra Velarde-Suárez
Área de Mecánica de Fluidos,
e-mail: sandrav@uniovi.es
Universidad de Oviedo
, Campus de Gijón, 33271 Gijón, Spain
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Juan Pablo Hurtado-Cruz
Juan Pablo Hurtado-Cruz
Área de Mecánica de Fluidos,
e-mail: jhurtado@usach.cl
Universidad de Oviedo
, Campus de Gijón, 33271 Gijón, Spain
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Rafael Ballesteros-Tajadura
Área de Mecánica de Fluidos,
Universidad de Oviedo
, Campus de Gijón, 33271 Gijón, Spaine-mail: rballest@uniovi.es
Sandra Velarde-Suárez
Área de Mecánica de Fluidos,
Universidad de Oviedo
, Campus de Gijón, 33271 Gijón, Spaine-mail: sandrav@uniovi.es
Juan Pablo Hurtado-Cruz
Área de Mecánica de Fluidos,
Universidad de Oviedo
, Campus de Gijón, 33271 Gijón, Spaine-mail: jhurtado@usach.cl
J. Fluids Eng. Sep 2008, 130(9): 091102 (12 pages)
Published Online: August 12, 2008
Article history
Received:
March 23, 2007
Revised:
April 17, 2008
Published:
August 12, 2008
Citation
Ballesteros-Tajadura, R., Velarde-Suárez, S., and Hurtado-Cruz, J. P. (August 12, 2008). "Noise Prediction of a Centrifugal Fan: Numerical Results and Experimental Validation." ASME. J. Fluids Eng. September 2008; 130(9): 091102. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2953229
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