Energy Efficiency of an Axial Fan for Various Casing Configurations

The objective of this paper is to compare the measured and predicted performances of a tubeaxial fan for several casing configurations that are commonly proposed by fan manufacturers to their clients. This work is motivated by the European Commission Regulation 327/2011, which will impose target energy efficiency for fans driven by electric motors beginning 1 January 2013. The prediction is made with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) commercial code STAR-CCM+. The agreement between the experimental and numerical results on fan performance curves is very satisfactory, which confirms that CFD simulations may advantageously replace testing in parametric studies since they predict the quantitative differences of aerodynamic performance observed experimentally between the different casing configurations quite well. Numerical simulations may, therefore, help manufacturers to improve the geometry of their fans in order to fulfill the requirements of the regulation.