FEDSM2018 ASME

Axial and radial fans and blowers are very common in home appliances, electronic devices and in industrial applications. Since the number of fans and blowers available is very large, it is very important to develop efficient designs perfectly adapted to the application case.

In this workshop the fundamentals of radial and axial fan design will be presented. After a short revision of the fundamental equations, the design method for radial and axial fans will be discussed. An Excel design program for radial and for axial fans will be presented and explained in detail. The equations in the excel sheet will be given in a hand out and explained one by one.

The contents of the workshop are subdivided in two parts: radial fan design (2 hours) and axial fan design (2 hours).

Worskshop Schedule:

1 pm – 3pm
Radial fan design:

• Revision of the conservation laws, stationary and rotating frames of reference, velocity triangles and the Euler turbomachinery equation.
• The Cordier Diagram and the determination of the main dimensions of a radial fans for a specified operating point.
• Non dimensional characteristic numbers for radial fans
• Shroud shapes
• Blade shapes: circular blades, point wise computed blades, direct and inverse method
• Computation of the total pressure, total-to-static pressure and the total-to-static efficiency in design stage for radial fans
• Detailed implementation of the design equations in an Excel sheet and export to CAD
• Discussion of different designs, coparison with CFD results for one case

3pm-5pm
Axial fan design:

• Revision of the Euler equation applied to axial fans, velocity triangles for axial fans, radial equilibrium equation, mean line theory, blade element theory, main dimensioning equation for axial fans
• The Cordier Diagram and the determination of the main dimensions of axial fans for a specified operating point.
• Non dimensional characteristic numbers for axial fans
• Dimensioning of axial fan cascades
• Computation of the total pressure, total-to-static pressure and the total-to-static efficiency in design stage for axial fans
• Detailed implementation of the design equations in an Excel sheet and export to CAD
• Discussion of different designs, coparison with CFD results for one case

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Instructor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Philipp Epple
Philipp Epple has been a full Professor for fluid mechanics and turbomachinery at the department of mechanical engineering of the Coburg University of applied sciences in Germany since 2011. He teaches classes of introductory and advanced fluid mechanics, classes of introductory and advanced turbomachinery, numerical fluid mechanics (CFD), thermodynamics, heat transfer, wind energy and related fields. He has been the head of the group of turbomachinery and process fluid dynamics at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics of the University of Erlangen for several years. He received his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering with honours from the University of Erlangen. He has worked in the design, development and CFD computation of turbomachines, having done uncounted CFD computations for a large variety of machines, like for example fans, ranging from some centimetres to over two meters in diameter, wind turbines, also an high velocity ICE train, big waste water and small blood pumps. He has built more than 15 test rigs for turbomachinery and performed measurements on more than 300 turbomachines. He worked on over 40 industry projects in the field of turbomachines. He has supervised about 100 master and several PhD theses. He has more than 80 publications in international journals and peer reviewed conferences. He is a member of the ASME, AIAA and of the VDI.