VIKING GmbH

Engineering Simulation Offers Insight

Into Performance and Noise Reduction
Investigations in a Lawn Mower

www.ansys.com

As a 100 percent subsidiary of ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG, VIKING GmbH is an innovative,
service-oriented manufacturer of lawn mowers, lawn scarifiers, lawn tractors, garden shredders and
tillers. In its lawn mower division, the company is focused on offering the most comfortable and efficient tools possible by continually improving mowing performance (the ability to achieve a smooth
clean cut, and transport and collect the grass into the catching box) and at the same time meet the
outdoor noise emissions regulations of their products.

TECHNOLOGY USED

COMPANY INFORMATION
Country: Austria
Industry: Gardening Equipment
Manufacturing
www.viking-garden.com

ANSYS CFX Software

CHALLENGES
Inside the deck of a lawnmower, highly unsteady airflow is induced by a curved, double-edged
blade. The simple and highly-curved shape of the blade means that vortices are shed in their wake
and periodically strike the wall of the chute, impacting noise emission levels and catching performance.
To improve catching performance and simultaneously meet the outdoor noise emissions, VIKING
engineers needed a deeper understanding of the aerodynamics within the deck. But, fast blade
rotation, unsteady pressure and high fluctuations of the air velocity within the deck created a
complex airflow that made traditional development and measurement methods almost impossible.
The goal of the initial computation of the fluid flow inside
VIKING lawnmower deck was to see if numerical simulation could be implemented in the design process; to
do so required confirming the accuracy of results with
experimental measurements and verifying the benefits
that can be gained from the insight provided with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The successful application
of a fluid analysis tool would overcome the limitations of
using traditional measurements.
VIKING engineers decided to use ANSYS CFX fluid flow
simulation software to simulate the airflow in the lawn
mower deck and compare the computed characteristic
parameters of the airflow with measurements in the chute
of the lawnmower.

ENGINEERING SOLUTION
VIKING engineers:
Set up the wall, counter rotating wall and opening boundary conditions in ANSYS CFX-Pre
Performed URANS simulation with transient rotor stator model using ANSYS CFX software
Performed post-processing in ANSYS CFD-Post

We use ANSYS
Mechanical software to
perform structural analysis, which
helps us to estimate the lifestrain of
parts. Now, because fluid flow simulation allows a deeper understanding of
the fluid flow in the lawn mower deck,
the development procress can be
supported by ANSYS CFX software.
The result is that we can better comply
with customers performance
demands and simultaneously meet
the outdoor noise emissions
regulations.

DI Jakob Trentini
VIKING GmbH

BENEFITS / RESULTS ACHIEVED

Using ANSYS CFX software, VIKING engineers:
Achieved good agreement with velocity measurements in the chute of the mower
Discovered boundary separation in the lawn mower chute and prevented the separation in
a second step by filling the separation area
Localized and optimized the main vortices, a source of sound emissions, by identifying areas
of high turbulent fluctuations
Gained the ability to consider flow within the entire three-dimensional lawnmower as well as
select and evaluate the most important variables -- pressure allocation on the blade, mass
flow and fluctuation in the outlet section and turbulence -- that are characteristic for the fluid
flow yet cannot be measured experimentally due to the rotating blades
2010 ANSYS, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Inflow, outflow and pressure allocation

of the ME 545

CASE STUDY