Experimental investigation of the influence of different leading edge
modifications on the sound emission of axial fans downstream of a heatexchanger
Felix CZWIELONG(1) , Florian KRÖMER(2) , Paruchuri CHAITANYA (3) ,Stefan BECKER(4)(1) Institute of Process Machinery and Systems Engineering, University of Erlangen, Germany, cz@ipat.fau.de(2) Institute of Process Machinery and Systems Engineering, University of Erlangen, Germany, kro@ipat.fau.de(3) Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, England, C.C.Paruchuri@soton.ac.uk(4) Institute of Process Machinery and Systems Engineering, University of Erlangen, Germany, sb@ipat.fau.de

Abstract
Axial fans have a major impact on the sound emission of technical systems. One of the common applicationsof low-pressure axial fans is their usage in air conditioning and cooling circuits. In most cases the fan operates
downstream of a heat exchanger in this scheme. The suction side heat exchanger changes the upstream flow fieldof the fan, often resulting in an increase in the sound pressure level of the axial fan compared to undisturbed
inflow conditions. Investigations on sound radiation of aerorfoils showed that leading-edge modifications likeserrations or slits reduce the turbulence-aerofoil interaction noise. In this study, the impact of two different
leading-edge modifications (sinusoidal and slit) on the sound emissions of a forward skewed low-pressure axial
fan was examined. The inflow conditions varied between a free inflow and a disturbed inflow, generated by aheat exchanger located on the suction side of the axial fan. The results show that the modification of the leading edge has a positive influence on the sound radiation of the axial fan for both inlet conditions discussed above.

Keywords: Axial Fan, Leading Edge, Air Conditioning

1

INTRODUCTION

Axial fans are used in a variety of technical applications such as cars, trains, computers, air conditioners andheat pumps. With this wide range of applications, axial fans are part of our daily lives. Fans are one of themain sources of noise in these technical systems. The resulting noise is often felt by people as disturbing andcan also lead to psychological stress [1]. For this reason, many investigations have been carried out in recent
years with regard to the acoustic optimisation of axial fans. These investigations included on the one hand the
reduction of sound radiation on stationary airfoils and on the other hand on rotating fans. As the leading edge ofthe blade in interactions with the turbulent inflow to the blade is known to be a dominant sound source, several
studies investigated modifications of the leading edge under different inflow conditions. This study aimed tofollow on from the previous studies and analyse the influence of different leading edge modifications on thesound radiation of axial fans. In order to illustrate a technically relevant case, the experiments are performed
not only under free inflow conditions but also under disturbed inflow generated by a heat exchanger.
1.1 Leading-edge modifications
In the present study two different leading edge modifications are considered. The first modification is slits inthe leading edge of the fan blade. On fixed blades it was found that slits in the leading edge cause a reductionof the sound pressure level. The greatest reduction could be achieved with a ratio of distance between slits andlength of slits of lLE /wLE = 6. In the low frequency range, the noise reduction with slitted leading edges was
greater compared to serrated leading edges consisting of a sinusoidal waveform [2]. We can add optimum slit
dimensions are considered in this study as identified by [3]. The second modification are sinusoidal serrations

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on the leading edge. Experiments were performed by Biedermann et al.[4] with axial fans, which have asinusoidally serrated leading edge. This could determine a reduction of the sound pressure level up to 3.4 dB in
specific frequency ranges due to the leading edge modification. The investigations by Krömer et al. [5, 6] also
showed that the use of sinusoidal leading edges can reduce the sound radiation of flat-plate fans. As a variant
with the lowest sound emission, the leading edges with the highest amplitudes αLE and the smallest wavelength
λLE could be found.
1.2 Inflow Conditions
The aerodynamic and acoustic behaviour of low-pressure axial fans under disturbed inflow conditions was investigated in most cases with the use of passive turbulence grids. For this purpose, the grids were placed
upstream of the fans and the turbulence characteristics of the flow were modified. It was found that the soundemission of the fans increases with increasing turbulence intensity [6]. The homogeneity of the flow field also
had an effect on the sound emission, which was shown, for example, in an increased blade passing frequency[6, 7]. Practical cases with heat exchangers on the suction side or empty heat exchanger housings were also
investigated. This showed that heat exchangers generate inhomogeneity in the flow field and can influence theturbulence intensity. The increased sound emission of fans with suction-side heat exchangers was traced backto these flow phenomena and to a varied interaction between tip gap flow and blade tip [8, 9].

2

FAN DESIGN

247,5 mm

The axial fans were designed according to the blade element theory and have the same design parameters[6, 10]. The fans use the same hub, which has a diameter of dhub = 247.5 mm. The fan blades (NACA 4510
profile [11]) are screwed to the hub and can be replaced. The entire fan with blades has a diameter of dfan =495 mm, see figure 1.

yxz

495 mmFigure 1. Illustration of the axial fan with slitted leading edges.
In this study three different fans are examined which differ in their leading edge modification. All fans havenine forward-skewed (FSK) fan blades. From previous studies it could be shown that forward-skewed blades
reduces the sound emission of axial fans [12, 13, 6]. A fan with a straight leading edge (SLE) is selected as
reference fan (FSK-SLE). The first leading edge modification has slits in the aerorfoil (FSK-SLIT). For thisconfiguration a ratio of lLE /wLE = 7.5 was choosen. The second modification is a serrated leading edge (FSK-1844

SERR) where the aerofoil surface is kept constant, see figure 2. The individual design parameters are shown infigure 3 and listed in table 1 in relation to the mean chord length of the aerofoil. The mean chord length forthe blades is lc = 69, 6 mm. The axial fans operate in a duct with a diameter of dduct = 500 mm and a speedof n = 1000 rpm. This speed is below the design speed, which is n = 1486 rpm. The tip gap of the fans has
a dimension of stip = 2.5 mm. The individual blades are made of PA3200GF material using the laser sintering
process.

(a) FSK-SLE(b) FSK-SLIT(c) FSK-SERR

Figure 2. Fan Blades with different leading edges modnifcations, (a) reference fan blade FSK-SLE with straightleading edge, (b) fan blade FSK-SLIT with slitted leading edge and (c) fan blade FSK-SERR with sinusoidal
serrated leading edge.

lLE

wLE
λLE
αLE

hLE
(a) parameters of slits(b) parameters of sinusoidal serrations

Figure 3. Schematic sketch for the parameters of the leading edge modification.

Table 1. Parameters for the leading edge modifications relativ to mean chord length.
parameters of slits
lLE
hLE
wLE

3

21,6%
32.3%
2.9%

parameters of serrations
λLE
αLE

6.7%
16.7%

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

The fluid-mechanical and acoustic investigations were performed in the standardized axial fan test chamber of
the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg [6]. The test bench is designed according to ISO 5801 [14], see figure
4.

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splitter-type silencer cross section
damping material
open section
splitter-type silencer

butterfly damper

standardized
bellmouth inlet

auxilary fan

2445 mm (depth: 2445 mm)absorberflow
straightenerpressure tap
bellmouth inlet
heat exchanger

mount

y
z

x

torque meter motor
test fan

3635 mmFigure 4. Standardized inlet test chamber according to ISO 5801 [14] with heat exchanger and axial test fan.
In order to examine the sound field on the suction side of the axial fans, the test rig has a anechoic chamberequipped with absorbers. This chamber has a volume of V = 22 m3 and a quiescent sound pressure level of
Lp = 28 dB in the frequency range of f ∈ [0.1 kHz, 10 kHz]. The volume flow rate V̇ is measured with astandardized inlet bellmouth. For the adjustment of the operating point, an auxiliary fan and a butterfly damper
are used. For a low-noise inflow there are splitter-type-silencers in the front of the measuring chamber. Inside
the anechoic chamber, five half inch free-field microphones are set up for acoustic investigations. These arelocated at a distance of R = 1000 mm from the inlet bellmouth of the fan, which is fixed to the wall of thetest bench. Three microphoes are arranged in a horizontal quarter circle and two in a vertical quarter circle
around the bellmouth. The microphones have a segmentation of 22.5◦ . The fan is operated in a dduct = 500 mm
duct. A 3 kW asynchronous motor was used as the drive unit, which was operated at a constant speed ofn = 1000 rpm. The speed is measured by a tachometer (one puls per revolution) located between the fan and the
motor. The total-to-static pressure rise ∆pts generated by the fan is determined by a differential pressure sensor
between the environment and the suction side of the fan. For influencing the inflow to the fan a qudaratic heatexchanger with the hight hhe = 800 mm and width whe = 800 mm was used. The coolant pipes have a diameterof dpipe = 9, 5 mm and the distance between the cooling slats is sslat = 2.2 mm. The inflow conditions were
determined using 3D hot-wire anemometry. For these investigations the fan blades were removed and the flow
field measured at the position where the leading edge of the fan blades is located. The hot-wire probe wasautomatically moved to 80 different measuring points by means of a traverse. The measuring points cover one
third of the duct area. A waiting time of tw = 15 s was set before each measuring point [15]. A StreamLine
Pro was used as the measuring bridge and processor. A measurement time of ts = 30 s and a sampling rateof fs = 48 kHz were selected per measuring point both for the measurements of the inflow conditions and forthe measurements of the sound pressure. In both cases a PXIe-1075 front-end with 24-bit A/D converter NI
PXie-4492 was used [8, 6].

4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the turbulence characteristics of the suction-side flow field of the axial fan will be discussed
first. Based on these results, the aerodynamic and acoustic behaviour of the axial fan will be analyzed in thefollowing subchapter.

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4.1 Inflow conditions
Figure 5 shows the contour plots of the turbulence intensity for the free inflow (5a) and for the flow downstreamof the heat exchanger (5b). The plots represent the flow field at the leading edge of the fan at a volume flowof V̇ = 0.8 m3 /s.

(a) turbulence intensity for free inflow conditions(b) turbulence intensity for disturbed inflow conditions

Figure 5. Turbulence intensity for the free inflow (a) and the disturbed inflow condition (b) caused by a heatexchanger for a volume flow rate of V̇ = 0.8 m3 /s.
The flow field of the free inflow shows a homogeneous field with an average turbulence intensity of Tuglo =4.88 %. The flow field downstream of the heat exchanger, on the other hand, shows clear inhomogeneities
which occur in the outer area of the duct. In addition, the mean turbulence intensity is increased to a valueof Tuglo = 7.54 % compared to the free flow. The mean and maximum values of the integral length scale andthe turbulence intensity are given in table 2. In addition to the increase in the turbulence intensity generated by
the coolant pipes and cooling slats because they act like a turbulence grid, the integral length scale has been
reduced due to these installations. The vortices are broken up by the cooling slats and smaller vortex structures
are formed.
Table 2. Average and maximum inflow parameters.
inflow condition
volume flow rate in m3 /sTuglo,max in %Tuglo in %
Λmax in mm
Λ in mm

free
0.8
11.49
4.88
125.0
93.3

heat exchanger
0.8
13.06
7.54
35.2
12.7

4.2 Aerodynamic and acoustic characteristic of the axial fans
The characteristic curves of the fans show that the fan FSK-SLE generates the greatest pressure rise. The pressure build-up of the two leading edge modifications is below the reference fan, see figure 6. The modification
with the slitted leading edge achieves a greater pressure build-up in the range of V̇ = 0.5 m3 /s to V̇ = 1.1 m3 /sthan the fan with the serrated leading edge. This can be explained by a higher drag caused by the sinusoidal
serrations [16]. The characteristic curves for the disturbed inflow are decreased to lower pressure differences.
This is caused by the additional flow resistance of the heat exchanger.

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50
0
-50

FSK-SLEFSK-SLITFSK-SERR

0

0.5
1
volume .ow rate in m3 =s

1.5

pressure di,erence in Pa

pressure di,erence in Pa

100

100
50
0
-50

FSK-SLEFSK-SLITFSK-SERR

0

0.5
1
volume .ow rate in m3 =s

1.5(a) aerodynamic characteristic curves at free inflow conditions (b) aerodynamic characteristic curves at disturbed inflow conditions

Figure 6. Aerodynamic characteristic curves of the investigated fans: (a) free inflow condition, (b) disturbed
inflow condition caused by heat exchanger.

80
FSK-SLEFSK-SLITFSK-SERR

75
70
65
60
55

0

0.5
1
volume .ow rate in m3 =s

1.5(a) acoustic characteristic curves at free inflow conditions

sound pressure level in dB

sound pressure level in dB

The acoustic characteristics curves, see figure 7(a), show that a reduction of the sound pressure level due toleading edge modification can be achieved almost continuously for the free inflow. The mean reduction of thesound pressure level compared to the reference fan is 2.1 dB for the slitted leading edge and 1.4 dB for thesinusoidal serrated leading edge.
80
FSK-SLEFSK-SLITFSK-SERR

75
70
65
60
55

0

0.5
1
volume .ow rate in m3 =s

1.5(b) acoustic characteristic curves at disturbed inflow conditions

Figure 7. Sound pressure level over volume flow rate: (a) free inflow conditions, (b) distrubed inflow conditions
due to heat exchanger.
In the transition from volume flow rate V̇ = 0.6 m3 /s to V̇ = 0.7 m3 /s, a stronger reduction of the radiated soundpressure level is apparent for the reference case FSK-SLE as well as for the FSK-SERR fan. This can be explained by the fact that instabilities such as tip gap flow and rotating stall occur intensively for the operating
points at low volume flow rates (V̇ < 0.7 m3 /s). This transition point is visible for the fan FSK-SLIT between
the volume flows rates V̇ = 0.5 m3 /s to V̇ = 0.6 m3 /s. This indicates that the slits provide a more stable aerodynamic characteristic and thus reduce the range in which the flow separates at the blades. In the case of a
disturbed inflow due to the heat exchanger, see figure 7(b), the same tendencies exist between the fans as withthe free inflow. A sound level reduction of 2.0 dB is achieved over the entire characteristic curve with the slitted
leading edge and of 1.0 dB for the serrated leading edge. Therefore the positive effect of the sound reduction
caused by the leading edge modification is reduced due to the suction side heat exchanger. The overall soundpressure level of the acoustic characteristic curve was increased by the heat exchanger by approximately 4 dB.

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60
50

FSK-SLE, LP = 62.7 dB
FSK-SLIT, LP = 60.9 dB
FSK-SERR, LP = 61.7 dB

40
30
102

103
frequency f in Hz(a) sound pressure spectras for free inflow conditions

sound pressure level in dB

sound pressure level in dB

Figure 8 shows the sound pressure spectra of the fans for the operating point V̇ = 0.8 m3 /s. Compared to the
FSK-SLE reference case, the modified leading edges reduce the broadband sound from a frequency of 1 kHz to
4 kHz. This frequency range can be assigned to the turbulent ingestion noise as well as to trailing edge noiseof the aerofoils [6]. This means that on the one hand the sound sources at the leading edge are decorrelated by
the leading edge modifications and on the other hand the changed flow over the aerofoil leads to a lower soundemission due to the trailing edge. This could be related to the fact that longitudinal vortices arise and increase
the momentum transfer in the boundary layer. The harmonics of the blade passing frequency are also reduced
due to the modifications. However, the FSK-SERR fan in particular shows an increase in the first blade passing
frequency, which stands out clearly.
60
50

FSK-SLE, LP = 66.2 dB
FSK-SLIT, LP = 64.6 dB
FSK-SERR, LP = 66.1 dB

40
30
102

103
frequency f in Hz(b) sound pressure spectras for disturbed inflow conditions

Figure 8. Sound pressure spektras at a volume flow rate V̇ = 0.8 m3 /s: (a) free inflow conditions, (b) distrubed
inflow conditions due to heat exchanger.
With regard to the disturbed inflow, it can be stated that the low-frequency range is influenced in particular.
Since the frequency range lwoer then the blade passing frequency and between the blade passing frequency andits harmonics is affected, it can be concluded on the basis of the flow investigations that the inflow in the blade
tip area is more turbulent due to the heat exchanger. This leads to an amplification of the sound generation
mechanism due to the interaction between the vortex system in the tip region and the blade tips of the fan.
The increased peaks of the blade passing frequency can be attributed to the inhomogeneities in the flow field.
A further influence could be structural acoustic effects of the heat exchanger, which have not been investigated
here.

5

CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOKIn this study the acoustic sound radiation of axial fans with different leading edge modifications (straight, slitted,
serrated) was investigated. The inflow conditions were defined as free inflow and disturbed inflow due to heatexchangers. It could be shown that the heat exchanger increases the turbulence intensity and induces local spots
with increased turbulence in the flow field. As a result, the heat exchanger increased the average sound emissionof all fans by approximately 4 dB. The modifications of the leading edge reduced the emitted sound pressurelevel under both free and disturbed flow conditions. The greater reduction was achieved with the slitted leadingedges, which were up to 2 dB in average over the entire characteristic curve. However, the modifications also
lowered the aerodynamics of the aerofoils which led to a lower pressure rise of the fans. In the next step, theleading edge modifications at a higher turbulent inflow should be investigated.

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