NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TIP VORTEX IN AN AIR-CONDITIONER’S PROPELLER FAN

Abstract

A steady, incompressible, turbulent flow field inside a propeller fan used in an air conditioner has been analyzed numerically using the single-equation Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. It has been found that the formation of tip vortex starts from the blade tip’s suction side at about one third of the axial chord’s length aft of the rotor’s leading edge. It is due to the rolling-up of the intense shear layer flow between the main axial flow and the suck-in inward flow caused by the large pressure difference between the pressure and the suction sides. The tip vortex passes through the blade passage in a curve reversed towards the direction of the blade’s rotation. Its trace is partial to the tangential direction as it goes into the aft part of the blade passage covered by the shroud and, simultaneously, its trace in the radial direction is turned from the outward direction to the inward direction. The operating flow rates have an important effect on the axial position of the tip vortex’s trace, while its effect on the radial position is negligible. At low flow rates, the vortex disappears at a location closer to the leading edge. The effect of the shroud’s width on the tip vortex’s trajectory is notable. For a fan with a wide shroud, the trace of the tip vortex moves upstream with a smaller radial influence region than that of a fan with a narrower shroud.