A novel rectifier device for uniform parallel air supply under the rotating distortion inflow

In local ventilation systems, the uniformity of the supply airflow is important to ensure that the supply air energy is efficiently transported to the target area. However, the actual air supply terminal devices have connections upstream, such as an axial fan, which makes the airflow rotationally distorted. Existing studies often add multilayer rectifiers to the terminal device to adjust the distorted inflow, but this usually requires sufficient installation space. This paper presents a novel rectifier (VLOR) designed to meet the need for achieving uniform parallel air supply over short distances. The effectiveness of the new rectifier device is experimentally verified by comparison with the conventional rectifiers. Numerical methods are used to explore the rectification mechanism and the key design parameters of the new device. The results showed that the vanes in the VLOR device eliminated the swirling vortex to achieve a consistent direction of the outlet airflow, and the orifice plate in the VLOR improved the uniformity of the velocity magnitude. This realizes the improvement of air supply uniformity in a short distance and further ensures the low-consumption transportation of supply air. Moreover, the position, length and number of vanes in VLOR are the key factors affecting the rectification effect.