Improvement in flow and noise performances of small axial-flow fan for automotive fine dust sensor

Recently, as interest in air quality in vehicles increases, the use of fine dust detection sensors for air quality measurement is becoming common. An axial-flow fan is inserted in the fine dust sensor installed in the air conditioning system in the vehicle to prevent dust from sinking directly on the sensor. When the sensor operates, the flow noise caused by the rotation of the axial-flow fan acts as a major noise source of the fine dust sensor. flow noise is recognized as one of the product competitiveness of fine dust sensors. In this study, the noise was gradually reduced at the same flow rate by improving the flow performance of the small axial flow fan. First, a virtual fan performance tester consisting of about 20 million grids was developed to analyze the aerodynamic performance of the target small axial-flow fan. In addition, the flow field was simulated by using compressible Large Eddy Simulation for direct computation of flow noise as well as high-accurate prediction of flow rate. The validity of numerical method are confirmed through the comparison of predicted results with experimental ones. After the effects of pitch angle on flow performance were analyzed using the verified numerical method, the pitch angle was determined to maximize the flow rate. It was found that the flow rate was increased by 8.1 % and noise was reduced by 0.8 dBA when the axial-flow fan with the optimum pitch angle was used.