Abstract
This paper presents an experimental study of the optimization of blade skew in low pressure axial fan. Using back propagation (BP) neural network and genetic algorithm (GA), the optimization was performed for a radial blade. An optimized blade is obtained through blade forward skew. Measurement of the two blades was carried out in aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance. Compared to the radial blade, the optimized blade demonstrated improvements in efficiency, total pressure ratio, stable operating range, and aerodynamic noise. Detailed flow measurement was performed in outlet flow field for investigating the responsible flow mechanisms. The optimized blade can cause a spanwise redistribution of flow toward the blade midspan and reduce tip loading. This results in reduced significantly total pressure loss near hub and shroud endwall region, despite the slight increase of total pressure loss at midspan. In addition, the measured spectrums show that the broadband noise of the impeller is dominant.
Highlights
Skewed and swept blade technique was originated from the research achievements of aircraft airfoil
The results showed that the forward-swept blades could improve the aerodynamic performance and have the potential of widespread application
The results showed that the performance of the forward-skewed blade increased at a higher pressure rise of 13.1% and gave a larger flow rate of about 5%, as well as a higher efficiency of more than 3% and a lower noise of 2 to 4 dBA
Summary
Skewed and swept blade technique was originated from the research achievements of aircraft airfoil. The results showed that the performance of the forward-skewed blade increased at a higher pressure rise of 13.1% and gave a larger flow rate of about 5%, as well as a higher efficiency of more than 3% and a lower noise of 2 to 4 dBA. Lotfi et al [10, 11] showed the optimization of blade camber line of low-speed axial fan by using GA method would achieve higher efficiency than the original design. In our former work [12], aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performances of radial, forward-skewed, and backward-skewed blades of low pressure axial fan have been studied contrastively. Both skewed angle of forward and backward impeller is set as 8.3 deg. The performance promotion of optimized impeller is confirmed by experiment, and the flow mechanism is explained by detailed flow field measurements
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