Original Article

Experimental and numerical

investigation of a gearless
one-motor contra-rotating fan

Proc IMechE Part A:

J Power and Energy
0(0) 110
! IMechE 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0957650916633014
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M Heinrich1, C Friebe2 and R Schwarze1

Abstract
A gearless one-motor concept for contra-rotating fans is presented in this article. The rotors are mounted to an electric
motor using only one shaft. The coupling between both rotors is realised by utilising the conservation of angular
momentum. The contra-rotating fans has a diameter of 200 mm at a design speed of 2100 min1 for the first stage
and 1200 min1 for the second stage. It has been designed and investigated through a series of experiments by the
Institute of Air Handling and Refrigeration in Dresden. The performance map and 2D particle image velocimetry
measurements have been conducted. Numerical models for 3D quasi-steady state and transient simulations have
been implemented and carried out by the Institute of Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics. The results show a good agreement
between the quasi-steady, the transient simulations and the experiment. However, when close to stall, the time-resolved
simulations show a superior performance compared with steady-state computations.
Keywords
Contra-rotating fan, gearless, computational fluid dynamics, simulation, validation
Date received: 26 August 2015; accepted: 15 January 2016

Introduction
Contra-rotating fans (CRF) reduce the swirl in the
wake ow as well as achieve higher power densities
compared with single-rotor fans (SRF) with discharge
guide vanes. In practice, this approach is already
being used to expand the application range of axial
fans due to the higher total pressure rise and increased
eciency. This is due to the improved recovery of
kinetic energy from the rst rotor. Conventional
CRF utilise one motor for each rotor or a gear for
power transmission. The compact design makes the
CRF favourable for various applications, where due
to lack of space, large industrial fans cannot be used,
e.g. tunnel and mine ventilation, as well as highloaded fans for high-speed propulsion systems.
However, using two motors or one motor with a
gear is more complicated, expensive and requires
more maintenance compared with SRF.
The CRF system has been around for many years.
The very rst experimental investigations of open
contra-rotating propellers were already being conducted in the 1930s1,2 showing the increase of eciency
compared with conventional propellers. In recent
years, more research work focusing on CRFs has
been published. Advantages of CRF has been shown
by Wang et al.3 He compared a SRF, a conventional
rotorstator stage and a CRF. The results showed

larger pressure rise and eciency with lower rotation

rate at a given power consumption. Cho et al.4 showed
how to design rotor blades and Wang et al.5 investigated dierent blade pitch angles to validate and
improve recommendations for shaft power matching
of CRFs. Another focus has been on the reduction of
sound emission, see Shin et al.6 and Li et al.7 Grasso
et al.8,9 focused on the reduction of the mechanical
stresses and broadband noise scattered from the trailing-edge of the blades.
The inuence of the rotor spacing has a limited
inuence on performance and eciency (see Nouri
et al.10). Varying the axial distance based on the rst
rotor chord length between 0.17 and 0.86 resulted in
no signicant change. Even when increasing to 3.1,
the global performance was only decreased by 5%.
Similar results were found by Sharma et al.11 and
Mistry and Pradeep.12 They concluded that the best

Institute of Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics, Technical University

Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany
2
Institute of Air Handling and Refrigeration (ILK), Dresden, Germany
Corresponding author:
Martin Heinrich, Institute of Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics, Technical
University Bergakademie Freiberg, Lampadiusstrasse 4, 09596 Freiberg
Germany.
Email: martin.heinrich@imfd.tu-freiberg.de

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Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

performance is found at an axial distance of approximately 0.9 chord length.

The relative rotational speed of the rst and second stage has a major impact on the performance of
CRF and compressors. Wilcox and Wright13,14 investigated a transonic contra-rotating compressor. As a
result, a variation of the rotational speed of one stage
only had a signicant inuence on the overall stage
performance. A higher tip speed of the second rotor
resulted in an increase in total adiabatic eciency.
Nagano et al.15 and Shirma16 showed that a correct
speed radio could reduce stall on the rst rotor. Roy
et al.17 concluded from their results that the rst rotor
has a higher eect on the mass ow capacity whereas
the second one mainly inuences the pressure rise and
operating range. Furthermore, a wider operating
range can be achieved by having a higher second
rotor speed compared with the rst rotor. The results
of Chen et al.18 support the signicant inuence of
speed ratio on o-design performance and eciency.
In this article, a new CRF concept is presented using
only one gearless motor. The concept was developed
for compact fans by the Institute of Air Handling and
Refrigeration (ILK) in Dresden, Germany. Because of
the innovative design, only one shaft is needed while
the torque is equally distributed between both rotors,
thus improving the ow eld inside the fan. This way,
the speed ratio between the rst and second rotor is
not xed and can vary for dierent operating conditions. Moreover, the design is lighter, more compact
and requires less maintenance compared with conventional CRF.

The rst rotor is connected to the internal rotor of the

electric motor whereas the second one is connected to
the external rotor of the motor. Grooved ball bearings
are used for the mountings on both ends. This way, the
electric motor has no xed position but can rotate
freely. For this reason, a contactless power transmission
is needed to supply power to the motor. Because of the
conservation of angular momentum, if the electric
motor starts spinning, the rst fan turns in one direction
whereas the second fan turns in the opposite direction.
The hub has a total length of 290 mm and an inner
diameter of 90 mm. The pipe diameter is 200 mm.
Three struts are used at the spinner as well as behind
second rotor to connect the fan with the housing. The
latter is made of acrylic glass to grant optical access for
stereo particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements.
Because of the law of conservation of angular
momentum and under the assumption of no friction,
the magnitude of the momentum M of both fans is
always equal
M1 M2

with the power of each rotor P i dened as

Pi 2Mi ni

and the rotational speed of each fan ni . The shaft

power is equal to the sum of the power of each rotor
Pshaft P1 P2 :

The following ratio of rotational speed and power of

each rotor can be derived from these equations:

Gearless one-motor concept

The new concept for a CRF utilises only one shaft for
the drive train of the two fan blades (see Figure 1).

n1 P1

:
n2 P2

Figure 1. Basic setup of the contra-rotating fan.

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Heinrich et al.

This shows that the ratio of rotational speed

depends on the energy transferred onto the uid for
each fan. For this reason, the angular velocity varies
depending on the operating point and the ow conditions. This is one of the main advantages compared
with conventional CRF. These have a xed rotational
speed, which has to be controlled manually.
Table 1 shows the characteristics for the rst and
second fan. The rst one was manufactured by ebmpabst and consists of nine blades made of sheet steel.
The design speed is at 2100 min1 with a maximum
static pressure rise of 100 Pa. It is mounted onto the
shaft of the electric motor. The design of the second
rotor is based on analytic velocity proles of the rst
fan at design point. It has 11 single blades made by
selective-laser-sintering using polyamide PA2200 and
are mounted on an aluminium ring. The second rotor
is mounted onto the external rotor of the electric
motor.
The rst rotor weighs signicantly more than the
second one. Therefore, it is more inert to changes in
rotational speed. For this reason, the acceleration and
deceleration of the second rotor is higher. The design
point of the CRF is at a ow rate of 572 m3/h with a
total pressure rise of 128.7 Pa and an eciency of
46.8%. The power consumption is 43.7 W. At this

Table 1. Characteristics of the first and second rotor.

Max. static
pressure rise
Rotational speed
Shroud diameter
Hub-to-tip ratio
Mass
Material

Rotor 1

Rotor 2

prel

100 Pa

40 Pa

n
d
h
m

2100 min1
0.2 m
0.45
2.13 kg
Steel sheet

1200 min1
0.2 m
0.45
0.45 kg
Polyamide
PA2200

operating point, the absolute rotational speed of the

electric motor is
nrel jn1 j jn2 j  3300 min1 :

Application of this CRF is heating, ventilating and

air conditioning.

Experimental setup
The measurements are performed on a test rig based
on DIN EN ISO 5801:2011 (see Figure 2). It has a
total length of 2.4 m and a pipe diameter of 200 mm. It
consists of three parts: (a) the air inow channel with
a curved inlet nozzle, (b) the CRF and (c) the outlet
with a ow control valve to adjust the ow rate. The
inlet nozzle is used to achieve a homogeneous velocity
prole and to measure the mass ow rate using four
pressure tabs (Ashcroft XLDP2 TSI VELOCICALC
Model 9565) at the tube walls. Four pressure tabs
at the outlet pipe are used for the calculation of the
static pressure rise of the fan. The rotational speed for
both fans is measured using a laser tachometer
(Compac Visible Optical Sensor).
The housing of the fan is made of acrylic glass to
enable optical access for stereo PIV measurements.
The Nd:YAG laser (NewWave Research Solo PIV
Laser, 50 mJ @ 200 Hz) creates a thin light sheet
30 mm behind the second fan normal to the axis of
rotation.
Two cameras (Dantec Dynamics HiSense 610 CCD
camera and Dantec Dynamics FlowSense CCD, both
1600  1200 pix2) record the particle movement for
the 2D PIV measurements. These are arranged at an
angle of 45 towards the laser sheet. A timerbox which
is connected to the tachometer of the second rotor
synchronises all cameras and the laser.
The ow is visualised using DEHS (di-ethylhexyl-sebacate) tracer particles of (0.51.5) mm size
created by a seeding generator in front of the inlet

Figure 2. Setup for test bench and 2D PIV measurements.

PIV: particle image velocimetry.

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Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

nozzle. The PIV measurement system is calibrated in

advance using a multi-level target. One blade passage
is resolved using 15 steps. For each step, 200 frames
are taken. Dantec Dynamic Studio (version 3.20.89) is
used for calculating the ow velocity from the particle
movement.
The accuracy of the measurements at design point
is as follows:
.
.
.
.

Flow rate: (572  5.72) m3/h

Pressure rise: (128.7  0.6) Pa
Power consumption: (43.7  0.9) W
Eciency: (46.8  1.1) %

The PIV measurements possess the following

uncertainty:
. In-plane velocity components: 2%
. Out-of-plane velocity components: 4%

Numerical setup
The three-dimensional, incompressible and Reynoldsaveraged NavierStokes equations are solved using
the open source computational uid dynamics
(CFD) library OpenFOAM Version 2.3.x.19 These
equations are given as follows:
r  u 0,

 
@u
p
r  uu r
r    RS
@t


where  denotes the density, p the pressure,   RS

the viscous and Reynolds stress (RS) tensor and u the
Reynolds-averaged absolute velocity. The SIMPLE
algorithm is used for the pressure-velocity coupling.
The k  ! shear-stress transport (SST) turbulence
model20 is employed to model  RS . The convective
terms in the transport equations are discretised with

second interpolation for u and rst-order upwind interpolation for the turbulent quantities. Gradients are discretised with the central dierencing scheme. In case of
transient sliding mesh simulations, a rst-order explicit
Euler scheme is used for temporal discretisation. A
maximum Courant number of 2.0 is used to adjust
the time step size. The nal residuals for steady-state
simulations are set to 105. Furthermore, the static
pressure at the inlet is monitored to judge convergence.
Steady-state simulations employ the MultipleReference-Frame (MRF) approach to model the rotation of the fans. Here, all parts of the mesh are xed in
space and additional terms are added to the momentum equation to account for the rotation of the rotor.
This way, no blade passage or time-dependent eects
can be resolved. Transient simulations are performed
using the sliding mesh approach. In this case, the
mesh in the rotor is moving around the axis of rotation. The connection between the rotating and xed
mesh parts is achieved using mesh interfaces. Six revolutions with respect to the second rotor are computed
for the unsteady simulations and the results are averaged of three rotations.
The numerical model of the test bench is shown in
Figure 3. It consists of the air inow channel, the
CRF and the outlet channel. At the inlet, a mapped
boundary condition is used for the velocity and turbulent quantities to achieve a fully developed ow
prole. The average inlet velocity is varied to achieve
dierent ow rates. At the outlet, the relative static
pressure with respect to the ambient conditions is set
to zero and the other variables are treated as a zero
gradient. The uid is air with a kinematic viscosity of
 1.85  105 m2/s and a density of  1.190 kg/m3.
This resembles from ambient conditions of 24 C at
101500 Pa.
The domain is meshed using an unstructured tetrahedral mesh. It is rened in the wake of the blades and
around the tips. Furthermore, an extrusion mesh has
been used for the inlet and outlet channel, where the
inlet pipe is twice the diameter and the outlet pipe four

Figure 3. Computational domain for the numerical model.

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Heinrich et al.

times the diameter. This reduces the boundary eects

on the numerical solution. Five dierent mesh sizes,
(4.0210.30)  106 cells, are used to assess the grid
dependency using the MRF approach (see Figure 4)
at the example of the pressure rise coecient (see
equation (3)). The higher the cell count, the lower the
deviation compared with the experimental results.
However, a mesh resolution of 5.66  106 cells
shows the best compromise between accuracy and
computational cost. For this reason, this grid resolution is used for the further computations. A cut
through the mesh is shown in Figure 5. The local
renement around the blades and the extrusion
mesh in front of the fan are clearly visible. The maximum aspect ratio of the mesh is 10, the maximum
skewness 0.7, the minimum included angle 17 and the
average y value on the surfaces is about 10. For this
reason, an all-y wall function is used to model nearwall turbulence.

0.44
Experiment
Simulation

[-]

0.42

0.4

0.38

0.36
4

10

12

Cell count x 106

Figure 4. Pressure rise coefficient at design point as a

function of the cell count using the MRF approach.
MRF: Multiple-Reference-Frame.

Results
Experiment
The experimental measurements have been conducted
by Czarnecki21 at the ILK. Two dierent setups are
investigated. The rst one is a standard SRF using the
rst rotor only. In this case, the second rotor is
replaced by a straight pipe. The other aspects of the
setup are the same as for the CRF. In the second case,
the CRF is analysed. The ow and pressure rise coefcients as well as the power coecient are dened as
follows:

V_
2

 3
D n1
4

ptot
2

 2 2
D n1 
2

, l

PF
4

 5 3
D n1 
8

based on the total pressure rise ptot . The experimental measurements of the fan performance are shown in
Figure 6. The general shapes of the pressure rise coefcient curves are similar and the maxima are nearly at
the same ow rate. However, the pressure rise of the
CRF is considerably higher compared with the SRF.
The reason for this is the second rotor, which
reduces the swirl in the wake of the fan and therefore
increases the static pressure rise. Furthermore, the
maximum eciency of the CRF is increased by
approximately 5% and shifted to lower ow rates.
Additionally, the range of higher eciencies is wider
compared with the eciency peak of the SRF. This
improves the performance at o-design conditions.
Figure 7 shows the angular velocities of the rst
and second rotor for the CRF. These vary by up to
20% with respect to the design speed. This indicates
that the momentum distribution between the rst and
second stage is uneven in case of xed rotational
speeds. It further shows the advantage of the new
approach to vary the rotational speed based on the
loading of the blades. Because of this variation, the
design speed cannot be used for the numerical

Figure 5. Cross-sectional view of the computational mesh.

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Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

correctly. One reason for this is the MRF approach,
which does not account for the unsteady behaviour of
the ow. Furthermore, rotorrotor interactions are
greatly simplied.
The transient sliding mesh simulations show a
better overall accordance with the reference data
and the slopes are met very well. Furthermore, the
sudden drop in pressure is predicted well. However,
it also shifts slightly to higher ow rates. Even the
unstable operating range at 0:15 of the CRF is
modelled correctly. This shows the strong inuence of
transient and rotor-passage eects, which cannot be
resolved using a MRF approach.

simulations. The rotational speed, which is dierent

for each operating point, has to be adjusted according
to the experiments.

Simulations
Figure 8 compares the performance map of the CRF
for the MRF and sliding mesh simulations with the
experiment. The MRF simulations show a reasonable
agreement at high and low ow rates. However, the
characteristic maximum and drop in pressure rise
are not captured. This indicates that the unstable
region of the performance curve is not modelled

1.2

0.6
Pressure rise coefficient
0.5

Efficiency

0.8

0.4

0.6

0.3
CRF

0.4
0.2

0.2

Efficiency [-]

[-]

0.1

SRF

0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

[-]
Figure 6. Experimental measurements of the pressure rise coefficient and efficiency for the SRF and the CRF.
SRF: single-rotor fan; CRF: contra-rotating fan.

2400
2000

-1

n [min ]

1600
1200
800
-1

Rotor 1 (2100 min )

400

-1

Rotor 2 (1200 min )

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

[-]
Figure 7. Rotational speed of the first and second stage of the contra-rotating fan with design speed in brackets.

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Heinrich et al.

A comparison of the power coecient is shown in

Figure 9. Similar to the previous results, the MRF
simulations overpredict performance at high owrates due to the over-estimation of static pressure
rise. At the same time, the maximum performance is
predicted at higher ow rates. In contrast to that, the
sliding mesh simulation results resemble a good prediction of the experimental results for all ow rates.
Stereo-PIV measurements have been performed to
acquire detailed velocity elds in a measurement plane
located 30 mm behind the second rotor. Figure 10
shows the circumferential averaged axial ow velocity
for the simulations and the experiment at design
speed. The measured axial velocity increases linearly

up to a maximum of about 9 m/s at a radius of 93 mm.

Both simulation models do well in capturing the velocity prole.
Turbulent structures downstream of the fan are
shown in Figure 11. At design point, only a few large
turbulent structures are visible, particularly in the wake
region of the hub. This indicates a good setup between
the rst and second rotor and as a consequence low
swirl behind the fan. In contrast, large vortices are
formed at o-design conditions. These move in a helical manner due to the rotation of the ow. This indicates higher swirl and turbulence compared with design
conditions and is one reason for the reduced eciency
at o-design ow rates.

0.6
0.5

[-]

0.4
0.3
0.2
Experiment
0.1

MRF
SlidingMesh

0
0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.25

0.3

0.35

[-]
Figure 8. Pressure rise coefficient for the experiment and the simulation.

0.12
Experiment
0.11

[-]

0.1

MRF
SlidingMesh

0.09
0.08
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2
[-]

Figure 9. Power coefficient for the experiment and the simulation. V_ 373 m3 (Off-design point).

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Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

The velocity magnitude at a radius of 150 mm is

shown in Figure 12 for the MRF and the sliding mesh
simulations. The former one can only correctly predict the average ow eld close to design point.
The velocity prole inside the blade channels is homogeneous. Furthermore, the interaction with the struts
is weak. In contrast to that, the ow in the transient
simulation is much more complex. Transient
eects such as separation and the development of a
von Karman vortex street behind the struts can
be observed. The ow is much more uniform in the
wake of the second rotor. This indicates that
the momentum exchange between the wake ow and
the jets is much stronger in the sliding mesh simulations. This way, velocity gradients are smoothed and a
homogeneous velocity prole is developed.

Conclusion
This article presents a gearless one-motor concept for
CRF. For comparison, the single-rotor and the CRF
are investigated through several experiments, which
include a test rig for performance measurements and
stereo PIV for ow eld measurements. The relative
speed of the CRF is 3300 min1. As expected, the
CRF shows a signicantly higher pressure rise coecient and power coecient compared with the SRF.
The rotational speeds of the rst and second rotor
vary by up to 20% with respect to the design speed.
This shows the uneven momentum distribution
between both stages in case of xed rotational
speeds. For this reason, the proposed approach with
varying speeds based on the loading of the blades may
be better for CRF.

Figure 10. Lambda2 isosurface downstream the CRF to illustrate large turbulent structures at design point (top) and off-design
point (bottom).
CRF: contra-rotating fan.

12
Experiment
Axial Velocity [m/s]

10

MRF
SlidingMesh

8
6
4
2
0
45

55

65

75

85

95

Radius [mm]
Figure 11. Circumferential averaged axial velocity of the simulation and experiment 30mm behind the second rotor at design point.

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Heinrich et al.

Figure 12. Velocity magnitude at a radius 75 mm for the steady-state (left) and transient simulations (right) at design point.

Furthermore, a numerical model is developed

for the CRF and validated using the measurement
data. The results show that steady-state simulation is
capable of resolving the ow eld of the fan and predicts the performance curve as well as local velocity
proles. However, transient sliding-mesh simulations
show a signicantly better performance, in particular
within the unstable operating range at low ow rates.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no nancial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Appendix 1
Notation
d
h
k
m
M
n
P
p
t
u
V_
y

Diameter
Hub-to-tip ratio
Turbulent kinetic energy
Mass
Momentum
Rotational speed
Shaft power
Pressure
Time
Velocity
Flow rate
Wall distance

l




Power coefficient
Kinematic viscosity
Density
Shear stress tensor
Flow coefficient
Pressure rise coefficient
Specific dissipation

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