Numerical investigation of aerodynamic performance of an axial fan blade equipped with vortex generators

Abstract

Delay in the onset of static stall via passive vortex generators (VGs) results in more efficient equipment. Nevertheless, most studies of VGs are conducted on wind turbine blades rather than other turbomachinery devices like axial fan blades. This study is feasibility research to see whether the aerodynamic performance of axial fan blades improves in the presence of VGs. Therefore, the VGs' effect of a static blade with an elliptical profile having a maximum thickness of 8% chord length and without a twist angle is investigated. Fully resolved RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes) simulation with the shear stress transport k–ω turbulence model at Re = 1 × 105 is used to discover the blade flow characteristics with VGs for two types of fan, eight and twelve blades. It is shown that, in both fans, not only can implementing VGs improve the aerodynamic performance of the blade effectively but also the separation phenomenon is delayed. Furthermore, it is concluded that installing VGs performed better in the 8-blade fan, with up to a 3° separation delay, a 9.88% increase in the maximum lift coefficient, and a 48.15% decrease in the maximum drag coefficient with respect to the clean blade. Analyzing the aerodynamic performance of real axial fans considering rotary blades with twist angles equipped with VGs will be feasible in future research.