Method for modifying axial fan’s guard grill and its impact on operating characteristics

Abstract

This paper presents the impact of guard grill on aerodynamic integral characteristic, the spectrum of sound pressure level and total sound power level at four characteristic operating points of axial fans with standard guard grill, with optimized guard grill and without guard grill. The study of guard grill’s impact was conducted with measurements at integral level and local outflow velocity field of the axial fan without guard grill. The measurement results of the local outflow velocity field of the axial fan without guard grill at optimal operating point were used to model the optimized guard grill contour. The guard grill of axial fan has a significant impact on aerodynamic integral characteristic at free flow and mostly used operating region. The influence of guard grill is also characteristically reflected in the spectrum of sound pressure level via vortex shedding frequency and consequently at total sound power level of compared axial fans.