Experimental Study on the Aeroacoustic Behavior of a Forward-Curved Blades Centrifugal Fan

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Velarde-Sua´rez ◽  
Carlos Santolaria-Morros ◽  
Rafael Ballesteros-Tajadura

In this paper, an aeroacoustic study on a forward-curved blades centrifugal fan has been carried out. As a first step, the fan performance curves, i.e., total pressure, power, efficiency and sound power level versus flow rate were obtained, showing its unstable behavior over a wide operating range. Second, the fan sound power level spectra for several working conditions were determined. For this purpose a normalized installation for testing in laboratory was designed and constructed. Afterwards, the velocity and pressure fields, both at the inlet and outlet planes of the impeller were measured using hot wire probes and pressure transducers, for different operating conditions. Finally, the aeroacoustic behavior of the fan was determined measuring the vorticity field at the impeller outlet, which is known to be related to tonal noise generation. This relation is worked out using the theory of vortex sound, developed by several authors during the second half of this century. The paper shows that the generation of tonal noise is produced at the blade passing frequency and it increases with the flow rate. Although the main contribution to fan noise generation is due to mechanical sources, the bands in which aerodynamic noise is generated by these fans correspond to frequencies especially unpleasant to the human ear. Therefore, the research presented in this paper may be of considerable interest, establishing a starting point for the design of quieter and more efficient fans.

Author(s):  
Jian-Cheng Cai ◽  
Da-Tong Qi ◽  
Yong-Hai Zhang

Tonal noise constitutes the major part of the overall fan noise, especially the blade passing frequency (BPF) noise which is generally the most dominant component. This paper studies the BPF tonal noise of a centrifugal fan, including the blade noise, casing aerodynamic noise, and casing structural noise caused by the flow-induced casing vibration. Firstly, generation mechanism and propagation process of fan noise were discussed and the measured spectra of fan noise and casing vibration were presented. Secondly, a fully 3-D transient simulation of the internal flow field of the centrifugal fan was carried out by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The results revealed that the flow interactions between the impeller and the volute casing caused periodic pressure fluctuations on the solid walls of the impeller and casing. This pressure fluctuation induces aerodynamic noise radiation as dipole sources, as well as structural vibration as force excitations. Thirdly, using the acoustic analogy theory, the aeroacoustic dipole sources on the casing and blade surface were extracted. The BPF casing and blade aerodynamic sound radiation were solved by the boundary element method (BEM) taking into account the scattering effect of the casing structure. Finally, the casing structural noise was studied. The casing forced vibration and sound radiation under the excitation of BPF pressure fluctuation were calculated by finite element method (FEM) and BEM, respectively. The result indicates that at the studied flow rate, the sound power levels of the casing aerodynamic noise, blade aerodynamic noise and casing structural noise are 103 dB, 91 dB and 79 dB with the reference sound power of 1×10−12 W, respectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 99-111
Author(s):  
Satya Prasad MADDULA ◽  
Vasishta Bhargava NUKALA ◽  
Venkata Swamy Naidu NEIGAPULA

Broadband noise generation from wind turbine blades is one of the fundamental aspects of flow-induced noise. Besides the turbulent boundary layer flow over the blades, factors such as the angle of attack, the turbulence intensity, the trailing edge thickness of the blade and their shapes strongly influence the overall sound power levels at high frequencies, i.e. f > 8 kHz. In large operating wind farms, a trade-off between noise generation and power production is considered by power utility firms to maximize the return on investment (ROI) and minimize the fatigue damage on wind turbine components. The present work deals with the analysis of the thickness effect on trailing edge bluntness noise level at hub height average wind speeds of 7 m/s, 10 m/s. A semi-empirical BPM model was used to predict the sound pressure levels from the 37 m blade length of a 2MW wind turbine. The receiver configuration was fixed at a distance of 120 m from the source height of 80 m. The results demonstrated that as the trailing edge height increased from 0.1 % to 0.5 % of the local chord, the sound power level increased by ~ 17 dB for frequencies > 200 Hz, but decreased by 16 dB when the thickness is 0.1 % local chord. The computed results of the sound power level using the BPM model have been validated using experimental data and showed a good agreement for the tonal frequencies, f ~ 10 kHz, where the trailing edge bluntness noise becomes dominant.


Author(s):  
C. Faustmann ◽  
S. Zerobin ◽  
S. Bauinger ◽  
A. Marn ◽  
F. Heitmeir ◽  
...  

This paper deals with the investigation on the acoustics of different turning mid turbine frames (TMTF) in the two-stage two-spool test turbine located at the Institute for Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics (ITTM) of Graz University of Technology. The facility is a continuously operating cold-flow open-circuit plant which is driven by pressurized air. The flow path consists of a transonic turbine stage (HP) followed by a low pressure turbine stage made of a turning mid turbine frame (TMTF) and a counter-rotating low pressure rotor. Downstream of the low pressure turbine a measurement section is instrumented with acoustic sensors. Three TMTF setups have been investigated at engine like flow conditions. The first configuration (C1) consists of 16 highly 3D-shaped turning struts. The goal of the second design (C2) was to reduce the length of the TMTF by 10% without increasing the losses and providing comparable inflow to the LP turbine rotor. This was achieved by applying 3D-contoured endwalls at the hub. The third one (C3) is a new embedded concept for the turning mid turbine frame with two zero-lift splitters placed into the strut passages. In total 48 vanes (16 struts plus 32 splitter vanes) guide the flow from the HP rotor to the LP rotor. The comparison in terms of noise generation and propagation of the turbines is done by the microphones signal spectra, the emitted sound pressure and sound power level of each TMTF setup. Therefore the acoustic field is characterized by azimuthal and radial modes by means of a microphone array at the outer casing traversed over 360 degrees. By comparing the first two setups (C1 and C2) in terms of noise generation the propagating modes due to the HP turbine were found to be the same, while a difference of 5 dB in amplitude of the modes related to the LP turbine was found due to the different axial spacing between both setups. In the multi-splitter configuration (C3), the overall sound power level depending on the blade passing frequency (BPF) of the HP turbine is reduced by 7 dB and depending on the BPF of the LP turbine by 4 dB compared to C1, respectively. The overall effect is a reduction of the noise emission for the HP turbine due to the embedded design as well as for the LP turbine due to increasing the axial spacing between the TMTF Vanes and LP Blades on the one hand and considerably due to the embedded design on the other hand.


2020 ◽  
Vol 204 ◽  
pp. 107286
Author(s):  
Deng Rui ◽  
Zhang Zezhen ◽  
Pang Fuzhen ◽  
Wu Tiecheng ◽  
Luo Wanzhen

2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Ashcroft ◽  
Christian Frey ◽  
Kathrin Heitkamp ◽  
Christian Weckmüller

This is the first part of a series of two papers on unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods for the numerical simulation of aerodynamic noise generation and propagation. In this part, the stability, accuracy, and efficiency of implicit Runge–Kutta schemes for the temporal integration of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations are investigated in the context of a CFD code for turbomachinery applications. Using two model academic problems, the properties of two explicit first stage, singly diagonally implicit Runge–Kutta (ESDIRK) schemes of second- and third-order accuracy are quantified and compared with more conventional second-order multistep methods. Finally, to assess the ESDIRK schemes in the context of an industrially relevant configuration, the schemes are applied to predict the tonal noise generation and transmission in a modern high bypass ratio fan stage and comparisons with the corresponding experimental data are provided.


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