The reduction of noise emitted by industrial low speed cooling fans, particularly those fitted to air conditioning systems is a concern to fan manufacturers. The market for industrial low speed fans is highly competitive, with fan noise being the major differentiating factor between competing products. Noise reduction strategies are therefore implemented but these can adversely affect the fan's pressure delivery capability. A reduction of fan speed can also lead to a reduction in fan noise but this is usually accompanied by a corresponding reduction in pressure rise and flow rate. The practical difficulties associated with maintaining fan pressure and flow characteristics while simultaneously reducing fan noise present fan manufacturers with a challenge. Traditional empirical approaches to the reduction of fan noise have almost been exhausted and no longer offer the potential to significantly reduce fan noise. The understanding of the aerodynamic mechanisms that act as broadband noise sources in low speed fans has been the subject of a considerable number of papers over many years. For most fans operating as a single blade row, the main sources of noise, other than those dependent on the incident turbulence levels, depend on the trailing edge and tip gap flow conditions. A range of strategies seeking to control the noise generated by these regions have been proposed over time by various authors and a number of these schemes have reached production status. The current paper details the numerical analysis of an industrial low speed fan, commonly used in conjunction with a cooling matrix, and which incorporates two distinct noise reduction features; trailing edge crenulations and a blade tip fence. Comparisons are carried out between various combinations of blades, with and without the individual features, and a discussion of the aerodynamics of the particular configurations is undertaken from a perspective of their noise reduction capabilities.
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