Efficient Fan Blade Design Using PC-Based Codes

A PC-based computer code for axial-flow fan blade design has been developed at Valeo Motors & Actuators Airflow Division, and is being used extensively for automotive fan design. This code gives a good initial design, and is followed by Navier-Stokes CFD sessions for verification and fine-tuning. It has been found that the code reduces the number of CFD runs substantially from what would otherwise be required, contributing to the shortened design turn-around time. A separately developed code (also runs on PC) for sound power prediction is utilized to set the blade spacing and skew angle for optimum noise performance.