Among all the elements of a centrifugal fan, the volute is the one that has the lowest flow efficiency. Therefore, improving the performance of the volute is an efficient way to improve the total performance of a centrifugal fan. To contribute a better understanding of the flow structure in the fan volute, the three-dimensional flow in a centrifugal fan volute with a large volute width and rectangular cross-section has been measured in detail by means of five-hole probe at three different flowrates. The time-average swirling and throughflow velocity, static and total pressure distributions on eight cross-sections in the throughflow direction of the volute are presented. The results show the formation and development of the flow in the fan volute of this type, indicate the variation of flow parameters, and discover some peculiar flow phenomena different from the traditional understanding. On the basis of the experimental results, the main hydraulic losses in this kind of fan volute have been preliminarily classified and analysed. The results show that the traditional one-dimensional design method of the volute should be further improved as it is only based on the law of momentum moment conservation and the ideal assumption that the distribution of flow parameters are uniform at the volute inlet.
