Experiment 11 Centrifugal Fan

Centrifugal Fan

Fan Types
A fan creates air flow by converting mechanical work to air kinetic energy. Two basic types of fan are centrifugal and axial. Air enters a centrifugal fan axially and exits radially. Air enters an axial fan axially and exits axially.

Centrifugal Fan Types

Centrifugal fan blade types.

Axial Fan

Centrifugal Fan Types Blade Type Characteristics

Backward Curved high efficiency high speed noisy large size high cost self limiting power Forward Curved low efficiency low speed quiet small size low cost sharply rising power

Force, Torque & Power

Force, Torque & Power

Blade velocity is angular velocity times radius.

This also means that velocity is proportional to fan speed times fan diameter.

Force, Torque & Power

Velocity Vectors: vb = blade tip velocity vr = air velocity relative to the blade va = vr + vb = actual air velocity vt = tangential component of the air velocity

Force, Torque & Power

Force is mass flow rate times velocity.

Torque is force times radius. Combining gives:

Force, Torque & Power

Force, Torque & Power

Use the velocity components parallel to the blade force. The radial components dont contribute to shaft torque. Shaft torque will be the difference between torques on the inner and outer radii of the blades.

Force, Torque & Power

Power is torque times angular velocity. By definition:

Fan Laws

We previously saw that velocity is proportional to fan speed times fan diameter. Substitute blade velocity. Knowing area is proportional to diameter gives:

Force, Torque & Power

Combining gives an expression for shaft power.

Fan Laws
Pressure is proportional to density times velocity squared.

We can see that power is proportional to mass flow rate times velocity squared.

Therefore:

Fan Laws
dependent: pressure rise volumetric flow rate power required

Fan Laws
Knowing the definition for mass flow rate:

independent: fan size fan speed air density

We obtain the proportionality for power:

Fan Laws
The three dimensionless coefficients in the fan laws can be used to evaluate the performance of a fan at various conditions.

Fan Laws
Using the pressure coefficient:

Fan Laws
What is the effect of fan size (rotor diameter) with: constant speed constant density similar operating conditions

Fan Laws
Using the power coefficient:

Fan Laws
Using the capacity coefficient:

Center Coefficient
The velocity profile in the duct is not uniform. A pitot tube is used to measure velocity pressure. Ten measurements will be made along both the horizontal and the vertical diameters.

Center Coefficient
Readings are at the centers of equal concentric areas.

Center Coefficient
The air flow at each test condition will be calculated based on the center velocity pressure using the center coefficient.

Center Coefficient
Calculate the mean velocity pressure in the duct using the velocity pressures at the 20 positions. Sum the squares, dont square the sum.

Performance Curve
The performance curve of a fan is a plot of pressure rise and power required versus volumetric flow rate at constant speed. Pressure decreases as flow increases. The shape of the power curve depends on the blade type. You will create a curve from your test data.

Center Coefficient
The center coefficient correlates the mean velocity pressure with the center velocity pressure. Should be less than 1.

Performance Curve
Backward Curved Fan

Static Pressure Rise

Static Pressure Rise

The fan total outlet pressure minus the fan total inlet pressure or the outlet static pressure plus the outlet velocity pressure minus the inlet static pressure minus the outlet velocity pressure.

Static Pressure Rise

The fan static pressure rise is the fan outlet static pressure minus the fan inlet static pressure. The outlet static pressure is the pitot tube static pressure plus the static pressure loss from the fan outlet to the pitot tube.

Fan Performance
Input power is the shaft speed times the torque.

Output power is the air flow rate times the static pressure rise. It is called the air power and can be based on either static or total pressure rise.

Static Pressure Rise

The pressure loss is a function of the duct length, duct diameter, air density, air velocity and a friction factor, which for our duct is 0.02.

Fan Performance
Static and total efficiencies are the ratio of how much power we get out, the static or total air power, to how much we put in, the shaft power.

Fan Performance
Fan performance curves are at constant fan speed. However, exactly constant speed data is difficult to obtain experimentally. Therefore corrections are applied to the data to obtain comparable results. Corrected flow is the measured flow times the ratio of performance chart speed to measured speed.

Operating Point & Control

Inlet vane control: some power reduction more capital cost

Operating Point & Control

The intersection of the fan performance curve and the system resistance curve is the operating point.

Operating Point & Control

Speed control: greatest power reduction highest capital cost

Operating Point & Control

Outlet damper control: little effect on power simple, low capital cost