EFFECTS OF INLET CLOSURE LEVEL ON VIBRATION CHARACTERISTICS OF A MODIFIED CENTRIFUGAL FAN
Inlet is one of the key parameters that plays an important role in a centrifugal fan. The change of parameters in an inlet can cause static and dynamic pressures in the fan housing. As a consequence, high turbulence can produce vibration. The aim of this research is to study the inlet closure level effects on the vibration characteristics of a modified centrifugal fan. The Inlet closure levels consist of 0; 25; 50; 75; 85; 100% that were tested to examine the vibration characteristic value (x, m, k, Ck, C). The test used a randomized complete design with full factorial experiment. Data analysis employed variance and regression analysis. The results show that the inlet closure effect is significant to the value of the vibration characteristics. The increase of the inlet closure level can cause the quadratic decrease of the values of the vibration characteristics. In addition, the increase of the inlet closure level had no impact on the applied resonance frequency levels. These experimental results obtained the highest values of the vibration characteristic at the inlet closure level of 25%.