Development and Application of Fan Noise Prediction Method to Axial and Centrifugal Fan

Numerical predictions of fan noise have not been studied extensively. This is due to the scattering effect of the fan casing, duct and the difficulty in obtaining aerodynamic acoustic source. New method to predict the fan noise and performance is developed and used to calculate various fan noise problems. A vortex method is used to model the fan and to calculate the flow field. Acoustic pressures are obtained from the unsteady force fluctuations of the blades using an acoustic analogy. But the acoustic analogy can be applied only in the free field in general. In order to consider the solid boundary effects of the casing, the newly developed Kirchhoff-Helmholtz BEM (Boundary Element Method) is introduced. With the above-mentioned method, the flow field and sound field of centrifugal and axial fan were calculated. Reasonable results are obtained not only for the peak frequencies but also for the amplitudes of the tonal sound. Also, in the predicted sound field, we can see the scattering effect of duct and casing.