A study of sound sources and unsteady surface pressure in an axial fan

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150267
Author(s):  
Bo Luo ◽  
Wuli Chu ◽  
Song Yan ◽  
Zhengjing Shen ◽  
Haoguang Zhang

The noise emitted from an axial fan has become one of the primary concerns for many industrial applications. This paper presents the work to predict the noise generation and investigate sound sources in a low speed axial fan. Computational fluid dynamics modeling is conducted using Scale Adaptive Simulation for the unsteady flow field. The sound predictions by the acoustic analogy are in good agreement with the experimental data. The results from this study show that the aerodynamic interaction between the blades and outlet vanes has a major contribution to the radiated noise spectrum. Two types of sources of narrowband humps are identified in the axial fan. The first is found at the leading edge of the blade tip, which is related to the interaction of coherent flow structures in the blade tip region. The second is found in the vicinity of the blade hub, which can be attributed to the recirculating flow and hub vortex. The noise below the frequency of 1500 Hz is mainly due to the blade-outlet vane aerodynamic interaction, manifested as the tonal sound at BPF and its harmonics, whereas above 1500 Hz the broadband component of sound is mainly related to the turbulent boundary layers.

Author(s):  
Massimo Masi ◽  
Andrea Lazzaretto

The flow path close to the suction side of fan rotor blades mostly affects the overall drag of the blading. The blade lift is affected as well because of the separation of the low energy boundary layer that drives the blade into stall at low fan flow rates. Forward sweep allows to position the airfoil sections of blades featuring a positive circulation gradient along the span so that they “accompany” the near-wall flow trajectories at the blade suction side. So, rotor efficiency and stall margin of the fan can be improved. On the other hand, blade end effects play a relevant role in high hub-to-tip and low aspect ratio rotors and may compromise the effectiveness of forward sweep. Nevertheless, some authors in the literature stated the beneficial contribution of changing the sweep angle at the ends of the blade both at design and off-design conditions. The paper studies the end effects on constant-swirl design rotors by means of CFD simulations focusing on the distribution of blade sweep in the near-tip region. In particular, the performance and efficiency calculated for a forward swept tube-axial fan featuring a hub-to-tip ratio equal to 0.4 are compared with those estimated for the corresponding unswept fan at equal duty point. Several modifications of the sweep distribution in the blade tip region are considered in the swept fan to quantify their effect on performance, efficiency and stall margin. Results show that the addition of up to 6 degrees of local forward sweep at the blade tip to the unswept blading does not affect fan pressure at design operation. On the other hand, this local increase of the sweep angle allows for a very notable increase of the peak pressure and efficiency at flow rates close to stall inception.


Author(s):  
Kin’ya Takahashi ◽  
Masataka Miyamoto ◽  
Yasunori Ito ◽  
Toshiya Takami ◽  
Taizo Kobayashi ◽  
...  

The acoustic mechanisms of 2D and 3D edge tones and a 2D small air-reed instrument have been studied numerically with compressible Large Eddy Simulation (LES). Sound frequencies of the 2D and 3D edge tones obtained numerically change with the jet velocity well following Brown’s semi-empirical equation, while that of the 2D air-reed instrument behaves in a different manner and obeys the semi-empirical theory, so called Cremer-Ising-Coltman theory. We have also calculated aerodynamic sound sources for the 2D edge tone and the 2D air-reed instrument relying on Ligthhill’s acoustic analogy and have discussed similarities and differences between them. The sound source of the air-reed instrument is more localized around the open mouth compared with that of the edge tone due to the effect of the strong sound field excited in the resonator.


2008 ◽  
Vol 617 ◽  
pp. 231-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL J. BODONY ◽  
SANJIVA K. LELE

An analysis of the sound radiated by three turbulent, high-speed jets is conducted using Lighthill's acoustic analogy (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 211, 1952, p. 564). Computed by large eddy simulation the three jets operate at different conditions: a Mach 0.9 cold jet, a Mach 2.0 cold jet and a Mach 1.0 heated jet. The last two jets have the same jet velocity and differ only by temperature. None of the jets exhibit Mach wave characteristics. For these jets the comparison between the Lighthill-predicted sound and the directly computed sound is favourable for all jets and for the two angles (30° and 90°, measured from the downstream jet axis) considered. The momentum (ρuiuj) and the so-called entropy [p − p∞ − a∞2(ρ − ρ∞)] contributions are examined in the acoustic far field. It is found that significant phase cancellation exists between the momentum and entropy components. It is observed that for high-speed jets one cannot consider ρuiuj and (p′ − a∞2ρ′)δij as independent sources. In particular the ρ′ūxūx component of ρuiuj is strongly coupled with the entropy term as a consequence of compressibility and the high jet velocity and not because of a linear sound-generation mechanism. Further, in more usefully decoupling the momentum and entropic contributions, the decomposition of Tij due to Lilley (Tech. Rep. AGARD CP-131 1974) is preferred. Connections are made between the present results and the quieting of high-speed jets with heating.


Author(s):  
Benjamin Pardowitz ◽  
Ulf Tapken ◽  
Lars Neuhaus ◽  
Lars Enghardt

Rotating instability (RI) occurs at off-design conditions in axial compressors, predominantly in rotor configurations with large tip clearances. Characteristic spectral signatures with side-by-side peaks below the blade passing frequency (BPF) are typically referred to RI located in the clearance region next to the leading edge (LE). Each peak can be assigned to a dominant circumferential mode. RI is the source of the clearance noise (CN) and an indicator for critical operating conditions. Earlier studies at an annular cascade pointed out that RI modes of different circumferential orders occur stochastically distributed in time and independently from each other, which is contradictory to existing explanations of RI. Purpose of the present study is to verify this generally with regard to axial rotor configurations. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory axial fan stage mainly using unsteady pressure measurements in a sensor ring near the rotor LE. A mode decomposition based on cross spectral matrices was used to analyze the spectral and modal RI patterns upstream of the rotor. Additionally, a time-resolved analysis based on a spatial discrete-Fourier-transform (DFT) was applied to clarify the temporal characteristics of the RI modes and their potential interrelations. The results and a comparison with the previous findings on the annular cascade corroborate a new hypothesis about the basic RI mechanism. This hypothesis implies that instability waves of different wavelengths are generated stochastically in a shear layer resulting from a backflow in the tip clearance region.


Author(s):  
K. Anto ◽  
S. Xue ◽  
W. F. Ng ◽  
L. J. Zhang ◽  
H. K. Moon

This study focuses on local heat transfer characteristics on the tip and near-tip regions of a turbine blade with a flat tip, tested under transonic conditions in a stationary, 2-D linear cascade with high freestream turbulence. The experiments were conducted at the Virginia Tech transonic blow-down wind tunnel facility. The effects of tip clearance and exit Mach number on heat transfer distribution were investigated on the tip surface using a transient infrared thermography technique. In addition, thin film gages were used to study similar effects in heat transfer on the near-tip regions at 94% height based on engine blade span of the pressure and suction sides. Surface oil flow visualizations on the blade tip region were carried-out to shed some light on the leakage flow structure. Experiments were performed at three exit Mach numbers of 0.7, 0.85, and 1.05 for two different tip clearances of 0.9% and 1.8% based on turbine blade span. The exit Mach numbers tested correspond to exit Reynolds numbers of 7.6 × 105, 9.0 × 105, and 1.1 × 106 based on blade true chord. The tests were performed with a high freestream turbulence intensity of 12% at the cascade inlet. Results at 0.85 exit Mach showed that an increase in the tip gap clearance from 0.9% to 1.8% translates into a 3% increase in the average heat transfer coefficients on the blade tip surface. At 0.9% tip clearance, an increase in exit Mach number from 0.85 to 1.05 led to a 39% increase in average heat transfer on the tip. High heat transfer was observed on the blade tip surface near the leading edge, and an increase in the tip clearance gap and exit Mach number augmented this near-leading edge tip heat transfer. At 94% of engine blade height on the suction side near the tip, a peak in heat transfer was observed in all test cases at s/C = 0.66, due to the onset of a downstream leakage vortex, originating from the pressure side. An increase in both the tip gap and exit Mach number resulted in an increase, followed by a decrease in the near-tip suction side heat transfer. On the near-tip pressure side, a slight increase in heat transfer was observed with increased tip gap and exit Mach number. In general, the suction side heat transfer is greater than the pressure side heat transfer, as a result of the suction side leakage vortices.


Author(s):  
Patrick H. Wagner ◽  
Jan Van herle ◽  
Lili Gu ◽  
Jürg Schiffmann

Abstract The blade tip clearance loss was studied experimentally and numerically for a micro radial fan with a tip diameter of 19.2mm. Its relative blade tip clearance, i.e., the clearance divided by the blade height of 1.82 mm, was adjusted with different shims. The fan characteristics were experimentally determined for an operation at the nominal rotational speed of 168 krpm with hot air (200 °C). The total-to-total pressure rise and efficiency increased from 49 mbar to 68 mbar and from 53% to 64%, respectively, by reducing the relative tip clearance from 7.7% to the design value of 2.2%. Single and full passage computational fluid dynamics simulations correlate well with these experimental findings. The widely-used Pfleiderer loss correlation with an empirical coefficient of 2.8 fits the numerical simulation and the experiments within +2 efficiency points. The high sensitivity to the tip clearance loss is a result of the design specific speed of 0.80, the highly-backward curved blades (17°), and possibly the low Reynolds number (1 × 105). The authors suggest three main measures to mitigate the blade tip clearance losses for small-scale fans: (1) utilization of high-precision surfaced-grooved gas-bearings to lower the blade tip clearance, (2) a mid-loaded blade design, and (3) an unloaded fan leading edge to reduce the blade tip clearance vortex in the fan passage.


Author(s):  
Mónica Galdo Vega ◽  
Jesus Manuel Fernandez Oro ◽  
Katia María Argüelles Díaz ◽  
Carlos Santolaria Morros

This second part is devoted to the identification of vortex sound sources in low-speed turbomachinery. As a starting point, the time-resolved evolution of the vortical motions associated to the wake shear layers (reported in the first part of the present study) is employed to obtain vorticity distributions in both blade-to-blade and traverse locations throughout the axial fan stage. Following, the Powell analogy for generation of vortex sound is revisited to obtain the noise sources in the nearfield region of the fan. Both numerical and experimental databases presented previously are now post-processed to achieve a deep understanding of the aeroacoustic behavior of the vortical scales present in the flow. A LES simulation at midspan, using a 2.5D scheme, allows an accurate description of the turn-out time of the shedding vortices, within high-density meshes in the blades and vanes passages, and a correct modeling of the dynamics of turbulence. Besides, thermal anemometry has been employed with a two-wire probe to measure the planar flow in the midspan sections of the fan. Statistical procedures and signal conditioning of velocity traces have confirmed experimentally the unsteady flow patterns devised in the numerical model. The comparison of the rotor-stator and the stator-rotor configurations provides the influence of the wake mixing and the nucleation of turbulent spots in the distribution of the Powell source terms. Moreover, the relation between the turbomachine configuration and the generation of vortex sound can be established, including the impact of the operating conditions and the contributions of the interaction mechanisms.


2013 ◽  
Vol 444-445 ◽  
pp. 462-467
Author(s):  
Dang Guo Yang ◽  
Yong Hang Wu ◽  
Jin Min Liang ◽  
Jun Liu

A numerical simulation method on noise prediction, which incorporates aerodynamics and sound wave equations based on acoustic analogy, is presented in the paper. Near-field unsteady aerodynamic characteristic can be obtain by large eddy simulation (LES), and far-field propagation of sound waves and spatial sound-field can be obtain by solving the time-domain integral equations of Ffowcs Williams and Hawings (FW-H). Based on the method, a numerical simulation was done on a two-dimension cylinder and a three-dimension flat plate with blunt leading edge. The agreement of numerical results with experiment data validated the Feasibility of the method. The results also indicate that LES can describe vortex generation and shedding in the flow-fields, and FW-H formulation, which has taken time-lag between sound emission and reception times into account, can simulate time-effect of sound propagation toward far-fields.


2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lundgreen ◽  
D. Maynes ◽  
S. Gorrell ◽  
K. Oliphant

An inducer is used as the first stage of high suction performance pump. It pressurizes the fluid to delay the onset of cavitation, which can adversely affect performance in a centrifugal pump. In this paper, the performance of a water pump inducer has been explored with and without the implementation of a stability control device (SCD). This device is an inlet cover bleed system that removes high-energy fluid near the blade leading edge and reinjects it back upstream. The research was conducted by running multiphase, time-accurate computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations at the design flow coefficient and at low, off-design flow coefficients. The suction performance and stability for the same inducer with and without the implementation of the SCD has been explored. An improvement in stability and suction performance was observed when the SCD was implemented. Without the SCD, the inducer developed backflow at the blade tip, which led to rotating cavitation and larger rotordynamic forces. With the SCD, no significant cavitation instabilities developed, and the rotordynamic forces remained small. The lack of cavitation instabilities also allowed the inducer to operate at lower inlet pressures, increasing the suction performance of the inducer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (3) ◽  
pp. 3748-3755
Author(s):  
Wataru Obayashi ◽  
H. Aono ◽  
T. Tatsukawa ◽  
K. Fujii ◽  
K. Takemi

This paper reports computational analysis of location and strength of sound source of the noise generated by a small axial fan widely used as an air-cooling system. High-fidelity Navier-Stokes simulations with high-resolution compact scheme are conducted with an implicit Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method on a HPC system and the resultant large-scale data confirms existence of unsteady vortex structures and their interactions around the impellers, boss and casing of the fan. To identify location and strength of the sound sources, reduced order model analysis is conducted for the distribution of pressure fluctuations in space and time. Snapshot POD (Proper Orthogonal Decomposition) analysis both in time and in circumferential direction, together with conventional FFT analysis, identifies location and strength of the sound sources. In addition, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is attempted, which shows more physical mode decomposition and separates some of the important features shown in the snapshot POD analysis. The study shows that the two data-mining techniques considered here identify possible aerodynamic noise sources of the axial fan clearly in comparison to those in the previous studies.


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