The effects of complex vortex structure on the internal flow and performance of a centrifugal fan with inclining symmetrical volute tongue were investigated by numerical simulations. The comparison between experimental results and numerical results on performance of a centrifugal fan is presented. To provide a quantitative analysis on the vortex structure in the internal flow of fan, Q criterion as a rule of vortex decision is implemented. Effects on vortex structure and X-velocity of the volute outlet are analyzed by modifying clearance and radius. It is analyzed to provide insight into the performance of the centrifugal fan. Special attention is devoted to the influence of the static pressure and efficiency of the fan by increasing radius of the volute tongue, changing tongue clearance and inclining volute tongue in this paper. The results also show that the static pressure of model B rises as much as 10.59 Pa and the efficiency can be improved by more than 4% compared with the original configuration due to the reduction of flow loss. It is further found that the static pressure efficiency increases with decreasing Q value distribution in the internal flow of the fan.

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Entropy generation rates in two-dimensional Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) turbulence mixing are investigated by numerical calculation. We mainly focus on the behavior of thermal entropy generation and viscous entropy generation of global quantities with time evolution in Rayleigh–Taylor turbulence mixing. Our results mainly indicate that, with time evolution, the intense viscous entropy generation rate s u and the intense thermal entropy generation rate S θ occur in the large gradient of velocity and interfaces between hot and cold fluids in the RT mixing process. Furthermore, it is also noted that the mixed changing gradient of two quantities from the center of the region to both sides decrease as time evolves, and that the viscous entropy generation rate ⟨ S u ⟩ V and thermal entropy generation rate ⟨ S θ ⟩ V constantly increase with time evolution; the thermal entropy generation rate ⟨ S θ ⟩ V with time evolution always dominates in the entropy generation of the RT mixing region. It is further found that a “smooth” function ⟨ S u ⟩ V ∼ t 1 / 2 and a linear function ⟨ S θ ⟩ V ∼ t are achieved in the spatial averaging entropy generation of RT mixing process, respectively.

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The geometry of volute tongue is crucial in the design of Sirocco fans. The size of the volute tongue determines its relative position and distance from the impeller which affects the local flow characteristics and thus the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performances of the fan. In this work, we performed experimental and numerical investigations on the effect of volute tongue radius on the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of a Sirocco fan. The internal flow characteristics are analyzed and discussed in terms of the spatial distribution and temporal variation of pressure and streamlines, the pulsating behaviors of pressure both in the impeller and on the volute surface with emphasis in the volute tongue region, the variation of passage flow with the rotation of impeller and the aeroacoustic features of the fan. We conducted numerical simulations using both steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approaches with realizable k-ε turbulence model with rotation effect correction and the results are compared against the experimental data to assess the prediction capability and accuracy in qualitative and quantitative manners. Experimental and numerical results show that as the volute tongue radius increases, the static pressure rises as well as the far-field noise of the fan and pronounced fluctuation of flow is observed within the whole impeller and volute; the reversed flow in the passage of the impeller is reduced and the high-pressure region is found to be moving towards the outlet of the volute. The decreasing radius also enlarges the size of the adverse pressure gradient (APG) region on the volute tongue which contributes to the formation of recirculating flow. The comparative RANS and URANS simulations reveal that both approaches produce generally consistent results regarding the time-averaged flow although the URANS data are much closer to those of the experimental ones. However, the fluctuating flow which is not capable to be modeled by RANS still dominates for the present configuration and thus URANS is necessary for the accurate prediction of the flow details.