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A method is presented for redesigning a centrifugal impeller and its inlet duct. The double-discharge volute casing is a structural constraint and is maintained for its shape. The redesign effort was geared towards meeting the design volute exit pressure while reducing the power required to operate the fan. Given the high performance of the baseline impeller, the redesign adopted a high-fidelity CFD-based computational approach capable of accounting for all aerodynamic losses. The present effort utilized a numerical optimization with experiential steering techniques to redesign the fan blades, inlet duct, and shroud of the impeller. The resulting flow path modifications not only met the pressure requirement, but also reduced the fan power by 8.8% over the baseline. A refined CFD assessment of the impeller/volute coupling and the gap between the stationary duct and the rotating shroud revealed a reduction in efficiency due to the volute and the gap. The calculations verified that the new impeller matches better with the original volute. Model-fan measured data was used to validate CFD predictions and impeller design goals. The CFD results further demonstrate a Reynolds-number effect between the model- and full-scale fans.

Time-mean flow fields and turbulent flow characteristics obtained from solving the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations with a k‐ε turbulence model are used to predict the frequency spectrum of wall pressure fluctuations. The vertical turbulent velocity is represented by the turbulent kinetic energy contained in the local flow. An anisotropic distribution of the turbulent kinetic energy is implemented based on an equilibrium turbulent shear flow, which assumes flow with a zero streamwise pressure gradient. The spectral correlation model for predicting the wall pressure fluctuation is obtained through a Green’s function formulation and modeling of the streamwise and spanwise wave number spectra. Predictions for equilibrium flow agree well with measurements and demonstrate that when outer-flow and inner-flow activity contribute significantly, an overlap region exists in which the pressure spectrum scales as the inverse of frequency. Predictions of the surface pressure spectrum for flow over a backward-facing step are used to validate the current approach for a nonequilibrium flow.

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