On the preliminary design of axial fans: extending the validity of the flow assumptions over the whole hydraulic characteristic and improvement of modeling

In order to carry out a preliminary axial fan design, established assumptions are made onto the flow structure within the fan at the design point. As an example the very common hypothesis of radial equilibrium, states that the radial velocity component downstream the fan is zero, and that the flow in this area is axisymmetric. With the help of this hypothesis, the flow is idealized in order to draw quantitative conclusions. The present communication aims at extending these assumptions on the whole flow regime in order to help fan designers to reduce the try-and-error cycle number. An analytical formulation for axial fan velocity distributions at design and off design conditions is proposed for an arbitrary work distribution. It is shown that the total pressure characteristics can be described by means of hyperbola and straight line. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)