Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 8

1

1. Introduction
In general, fan are the devices used to flow or move air. For industrial and automobile applications fan
can be defined as a device that impart air movement with fixed impeller inside a casing. Fans find
applications in a variety of engineering systems. Boilers, Heat exchangers, cooling towers are few
such systems where fan are used. In automobile applications fan are used at a variety of places like
blowers of HVAC systems & viscous fan for engine cooling.
Fans are classified broadly on the basis of how air flows through the impeller. It can be axial, radial,
fixed, mixed and cross. In mixed flow fans axial and radial flow occurs on vanes. Casings for these
are similar to that of axial flow machines but inlet has a radial flow component. On cross-flow
impellers, the gas traverses the blading twice [1]. However the two main types of fan that are used are
axial & centrifugal which have been discussed below.
1.1) Axial Fan
Axial type of fan operates on the principle of air deflection by fan blade. Pressure is produced by lift of
rotating blades as air moves on it. Air is moved parallel to shaft or axis. Popular types of these are
Propeller, Tube axial & Vaneaxial. In axial fan, air is pressurized by fan blades by the generation of an
aerodynamic drag. [2]

1.2) Centrifugal Fan


Centrifugal fan operates on the principle of deflection of blades as well as centrifugal force exerted on
air rotating with the wheel and hence moving in outward radial direction. These are typically used in
low to medium pressure range of HVAC applications. Important types of these include radial,
backward inclined, Backward curved, Forward Curved & Aerofoil Bladed. [2]

In this literature review, basic performance characteristics of the fan types (axial and centrifugal) has
been discussed. Moreover, application of fan in HVAC blower unit has been reviewed and the
performance parameters and characteristics of fan relevant to blower application has been discussed.
Considering the analysis of performance parameters and characteristics the critical parameters
affecting fan output and performance had been highlighted and ways to optimize them while designing
the fan have been concluded and listed.

2. Fan Performance Characteristics & Factors affecting Performance


2.1 Static And Total Pressure
The pressure associated with air flow is termed as static pressure. Static pressure is the useful
working pressure available for overcoming resistance of a ventilating system and exerted in all
directions at once. Static pressure can be positive or negative. On the other hand velocity pressure
[Pvel] is the pressure due to speed of air and is always positive and exerted in direction of flow. The
total pressure exerted by fan consists of static pressure and velocity pressure. The fan flow rate is
widely given by cubic feet per minute or CFM. [2]
Fan pressure characteristics are most commonly expressed in Static pressure. Fan total pressure is
the difference between total pressure at fan inlet and outlet.

Ptot = Pout - Pin


Fan static pressure is losses in system downstream of fan including system exit loss to atmosphere.
Static pressure is given by Ps = Ptot - Pvel.
2.2 Density
The flow rate of fan is irrespective of density i.e. the flow rate will remain constant with change in
density. The factors which change are pressure and power requirement. Although density will affect
total pressure.
2.3 Flow Rate
As performance of fan is given by its flow rate, it can be described in terms of volume flow rate or
mass flow rate divided by density at fan inlet.

Qf = m/f
2.4 System Effect
Even by controlling factors like static pressure, density and temperature air performance is not met.
This is due to the factor called System Effect. The loss factor is termed system resistance. The
system effect takes into account various effects like inlet and outlet restrictions, ducts, elbows and
grills. In the design process all these are added in calculation. Governing equation for pressure loss is
given by
P = C (V/1097) 2
where P= Pressure loss in inches
C = Loss coefficient
V = Velocity in feet per minute

= Density of air stream


For System effect to be minimized there must be uniform flow of air and there should not be any
obstruction in inlet or outlet conditions.
2.5 Pressure vs Flow rate (P vs Q)
Pressure vs flow rate is a crucial parameter that signifies the performance characteristics of a fan.
Static pressure is created on movement of the fan. The obstructions of the system or impedance
reduces the static pressure by creating resistance. P vs Q curves are also sometimes termed as
fan performance curve. It shows the airflow x-axis and static pressure value on y-axis. The pressure
vs flow rate curve varies according to the impedance which is given by the below graph. [4]

As evident from the above graph that decreasing impedance or obstructions would increase the air
flow rate and hence improve the efficiency of the fan. Further it is interesting to take into account the
fan efficiency concept & see the mixed effect of impedance on airflow at the maximum efficiency.
2.6 Fan Efficiency Curve with (P vs Q)
Efficiency of fan is an important criteria and there is a constant effort by researchers and
manufacturers to improve the efficiency of fan. Fan efficiency varies a lot with aerodynamic loading
[5]. Fan efficiency () is the ratio of output and input power.
Fan efficiency () = Pout / Pin
Pinput (W) = V (volts) * I (amps)
Fan output power is given by
Pout (W) = Air pressure (Pa)*Air flow(m3/sec)
Fan efficiency varies a lot with Airflow. As per the performance curve, decreasing impedance leads to
higher speed & performance. So the relationship curve for efficiency and performance differs and is
given as following graph [5] for a 120mm size axial fan with curves for both airflow and efficiency. BEP
or the best efficiency point is the where a fan operates most effectively with minimum wear and tear.

4
2.7 Fan laws
Fan laws are the critical relations which relate performance characteristics of geometrically similar
series of fans. Parameters like Cubic feet per min (CFM), RPM, static pressure and power are
interrelated and change in one may impact another and the overall performance of the fan. The
calculations of these can be given as:

CFM final = CFM initial * (RPM final)/ (RPM initial)


SP final = SP initial * ((RPM final)/ (RPM initial))2
HP final = HP initial * ((RPM final)/ (RPM initial))3
Whenever there is a change in volumetric flow rate, static pressure or power, these laws are helpful in
calculating the different parameters involved.

3. Application of fan theory in HVAC Blower application


Blowers are used extensively for various application from industrial to automotive to domestic. A
typical blower fan assy has centrifugal fan and motor. Our area of interest in this review is the HVAC
blower used in automobiles. An HVAC blower consists of DC motor with centrifugal fan as impeller
enclosed in a housing volute called scroll. [6]
With stringent emissions coming in implementation & greater push on energy savings the requirement
of the day is to design less energy consuming blowers. At the same time customer demands for ride
comfort have been increasing which need to be satisfied while being under the bar of energy usage.
So there is a constant need of making blowers more efficient and less noisy.
3D Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been extensively used by researchers to investigate
and achieve the desired objectives for blower. One of the earliest attempts to do a CFD analysis of
blower scroll has been done by Dr. AbdulNour, Dr. Botros, Dr. Smith and Dr. Lai (1996). This paper
discussed the allowable limit for three parameters of scroll design using DOE experiments [6]. The
same are as:
i) Effects of a blower scroll starting angle defined by a clearance between outer diameter of blower fan
and the nearest point on the scroll cut-off edge,
ii) Clearance between top of blower fan and its housing scroll
iii) Type of scroll expansion.
On the basis of certain DOE experiments and regressions various significant results pertaining to
these 3 parameters were obtained and used in future research.
3.1 Blower Efficiency
An important fundamental pertaining to blower efficiency can be determined from this paper [6]. As
performance of a fan or blower can be given by static pressure, power consumption, pressure rise
and volumetric flow rate, total point about stagnation point can be given by:
Pt = Ps + V2/2
Further blower static efficiency can be defined as ratio of fluid power divided by power output.
Total Efficiency = P. Q / T.
where P = Blower total pressure rise (Pt)
T = input torque
= Shaft angular speed
The blower fan and scroll efficiency in total gives the efficiency of system.[6]
3.2 Compact High Efficiency Blower Fan for HVAC
Keeping the improvements in HVAC design evolving Sakai & Ochiai (2010) developed new compact
high efficiency HVAC blower with the help of Sirocco fan. The primary change in packaging was
changing blower location fan to the center & integrating it with HVAC unit rather than a separate entity.
This also aimed at reducing distance between heat exchanger as this would create concern for
reduction of airflow volume and total pressure. The three main focal points of the research were:
i) Fan outer diameter reduction,
ii) Lower power consumption and noise level
iii) Equivalent level of airflow capability.

6
In the new compact blower, there was an appreciable reduction in noise & increase in efficiency by
10% for the same fan size. [7]. Its given by the below curve. Also on reducing the blower fan size to
110 diameter, power consumption decreased by 15% & volume by 35%.

3.3 Compact 2-layer high efficiency HVAC blower

With the evolving hybrid & EV technology, there is a need to accommodate HVAC blower in these
vehicles without any extra burden of energy on the vehicle. Further this is helpful in existing vehicles
as well where power of the vehicle is used by HVAC. Imahigashi & Sakai (2016) developed a 2-layer
compact blower high efficiency blower where the blower fan is a 2-stage fan which uses the heat
inside the cabin effectively and improves performance by utilizing both heats effectively [7]. The new
fan although becomes large in size & required to be downsized. The below graph shows the results
with previous fan with respect to which 20% less electricity is used & 40% less volume is occupied.[7]

The results of these paper show that concepts of aerodynamics can be used further to reduce heat
losses and improve blower performance by reducing power usage and increasing volume flow rate.
This leads to the point that further research can still improve efficiency to a great extent and reduce
the size of blowers.

4. Conclusion

Fans form an important part of engineering applications utilizing fundamentals of fluid mechanics. The
most challenging part with fan is attaining flow rate with minimum size possible, as many applications
have size limitations. The basics of fluid mechanics like static pressure, flow rate along with different
types of fans form the basis of this review. The concept of pressure vs flow rate plays an important
part in overall performance of airflow. The main application of Blower for automobile applications
discussed in this literature review has many critical parameters like Fan blade design, scroll housing
parameters, obstructions at the inlet & outlet leading to impedance affecting pressure and flow rate.
There have been a lot of development in HVAC blowers from the 80s till date where we have reached
to 2-layer compact blower. One of the biggest challenges with blowers for automotive applications is
packaging or space availability in the cabin. Further, HVAC and blowers contribute to power
consumption from the vehicle which have to be continuously minimized. In this review, we have
discussed the basics of blower in automobile application & how HVAC blowers have evolved and got
compact in size with improvement in efficiency. Also there has been constant improvement in reducing
the noise from blowers which plays an important part in ride comfort for passengers. Lot of research
has been done with the help of CFD simulation like Airflow in a HVAC blower and fan blade design,
but this literature covers mostly the fluid dynamics and Blower design concept part. In future further
emphasis will be on reducing the size, power consumption and noise of blowers in cars as emission
norms go stringent and ride comfort will be demanded by the customer.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi