Development of low-noise axial cooling fans in a household refrigerator

Experimental and numerical investigation on the aerodynamic noise of axial fans is carried out to develop a low-noise fan, which is used to cool a compressor and a condenser in the mechanical room in a household refrigerator. First, the noise performance of the target fan is experimentally investigated and, then, computational aeroacoustic techniques based on the hybrid method are applied to predict the radiated sound pressure levels. The validity of the computational aeroacoustic techniques is confirmed by comparing the predictions with the measurements. To develop a low-noise fan, we came up with two design concepts: one is that the uneven grooves are made on the surface of the suction side of blade along the rotational direction, and the other is that two different blades are combined into one blade. We have set systematic numerical analysis to evaluate the effects of these design factors on the noise generation of axial cooling fans. On the basis of the prediction results showing the possible reduction of noise levels by applying the proposed design factors to the existing fan, experiments using a full refrigerator with two prototype fans are made, which show that the sound power levels from the newly developed fans are less than those of noise from existing fans. Finally, an additional experiment performed by using a grooved/double-bladed fan installed in a household refrigerator shows that the overall noise from the new fan is reduced by approximately 1 dB to 2.2 dB in comparison with that from the existing fan in the refrigerator over the rotating speeds from 1090 rpm to 1210 rpm.