Determination of Aerodynamic Sound Sources on Periodicity Noise Generated from a Micro Wind Turbine

To discuss the relationship between the periodicity noise and the aerodynamic noise source of a wind turbine, the characteristics of the actual wind turbine were measured by a wind tunnel;moreover, the flow around the impeller immersed in the uniform flow was solved by numerical simulation. In the observed wind turbine, when the mainstream velocity was 7.4 m/s or more, the power coefficient reached maximum at tip speed ratio 8. When the mainstream velocity increased in the driving condition of the maximum power point, the aerodynamic noise increased due to the periodicity noise in the vicinity of 1000 Hz and the broadband noise in the high-frequency domain. The noise sources were concentrated at the leading edge and trailing edge on the suction surface side. We experimentally indicated that the pressure fluctuation of the leading edge was the source of the periodicity noise.

An Experimental and Numerical Study on Wake Vortex Noise of a Low Speed Propeller Fan

In order to clarify the relationship between the aerodynamic noise and the flow regime around the rotating blade of a propeller fan operated at the maximum efficiency point and the off-design point, the characteristics of fans with different solidity impellers were analyzed experimentally. At the off-design point, the broadband noise of the high solidity fan was much larger than that of the low solidity fan because the relative velocity increased according to the solidity and the noise sources increased because of the number of blades. In the case of the low solidity fan, the broadband noise due to wake vortex shedding was generated at the off-design point in the low flow rate domain and the maximum efficiency point because the relative flow around the blade separated easily.

Influence of Separated Vortex on Aerodynamic Noise of an Airfoil Blade

In order to clarify the mechanism by which aerodynamic noise is generated from separated flow around an airfoil blade,the relation between the attack angle and the aerodynamic noise of the blade was analyzed using a wind tunnel experiment and a CFD code.In the case of rear surface separation,the separated vortex which has a large-scale structure in the direction of the blade chord is transformed into a structure that concentrates at the trailing edge with an increase in the attack angle.The aerodynamic noise level then becomes small according to the vortex scale in the blade chord.When the flow is separated at the leading edge,a separated vortex of low pressure is formed at the vicinity of the trailing edge.The pressure fluctuations on the blade surface at the vicinity of the trailing edge become large due to the vortex in the wake.It is considered that the aerodynamic noise level increases when the flow is separated at the leading edge because the separated vortex is causing the fluctuations due to wake vortex shedding.

Prediction of Aerodynamic Noise in a Ring Fan Based on Wake Characteristics

A ring fan is a propeller fan that applies an axial-flow impeller with a ring-shaped shroud on the blade tip side. In this study, the entire flow field of the ring fan is simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD); the accuracy of the CFD is verified through a comparison with the aerodynamic characteristics of a propeller fan of current model. Moreover, the aerodynamic noise generated by the fan is predicted on the basis of the wake characteristics. The aerodynamic characteristic of the ring fan based on CFD can represent qualitatively the variation in the measured value. The main flow domain of the ring fan is formed at the tip side of the blade because blade tip vortex is not formed at that location. Therefore, the relative velocity of the ring fan is increased by the circumferential velocity. The sound pressure levels of the ring fan within the frequency band of less than 200 Hz are larger than that of the propeller fan. In the analysis of the wake characteristics, it revealed that Karman vortex shedding occurred in the main flow domain in the frequency domain lower than 200 Hz ; the aerodynamic noise of the ring fan in the vortex shedding frequency enlarges due to increase in the relative velocity and the velocity fluctuation.

Influence of Diffuser on Aerodynamic Noise of a Forward Curved Fan

In order to clarify the influence of a diffuser on the charactersfics of a forward curved fan, the influence of the bare ratio and the outlet angle on the characteristics of the fan were measured through an experiment performed with an actual fan as well as through a numerical simulation, respectively. The mechanism of the discrete fre- quency noise generated by the separated flow of the diffuser was analyzed. The optimized bare ratio was ap- proximately 17%. The flow separated inside of the diffuser generated discrete frequency noise owing to the inter- action between the reversed flow from the diffuser and the impeller rotating at the blade passing frequency. The diffuser outlet angle influenced the pressure ratio more than that by the bare ratio. Furthermore, it was confirmed that restraining the separation in the diffuser effectively decreases the fan noise.