Optimization Research of Centrifugal Fan with

Different Blade Number and Outlet Blade Angle

Songling WANG, Lei ZHANG, Zhengren WUHongwei QIAN
Department of Power Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, Hebei Province, P.R. China
Email: zl83828@163.com
AbstractThe characteristics of the three-dimension flow field of
the G4-73 centrifugal fan were numerically simulated based on
the k turbulence model with the Fluent, and then verified
the simulating result by experiment. Taking the efficiency
maximizing as a function goal, while the blade number and the
angle of blade outlet as the variable quantities, the fan impeller
parameters are optimized based on least squares method. The
optimizing results showed that the performance of centrifugal fan
was improved by lowering the energy loss which caused by the
secondary flow vortex, the volute tongue, the wake-jet and the
angle of attack. After the optimization, the total pressure and
efficiency increased 3.7% and 0.5% respectively.
Keywords--thermal power engineering; centrifugal fan;
numerical simulation; optimum design; least squares method
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, generating cost of power plants increases
due to the shortage of coal. As important auxiliary equipments,
fans consumed 30 percent of plant electrical consumption. So
the study and optimization of centrifugal fan to improve the
efficiency are important for the energy-saving of plant [1].
Total pressure and efficiency are important parameters of
fan performance. In deduction of the energy equation for
centrifugal fan, one of the assumption is that the impeller has
unlimited blade. In fact, the blade number is always limited,
which results in lower total pressure. Slip factor reflect the
influence of limited blade on theoretical total pressure. The
results show that the slip factor relate to the number of blade,
the outlet blade angle, the ratio of inside diameter to outside
diameter, the dynamic viscosity of the fluid and the runners
surface roughness[2]. Therefore, the number of fan blades and
the size of the outlet blade angle directly impact on the fan
performance, but it is still difficult to calculate it by theoretical
methods[3-4]. Cheng xinde studied the selection of the number
of the forward-curved blade by experiments, and few papers
did research on the impact of blade number and the size of the
outlet blade angle on the performance of fan by numerical
method. This paper will use the software of Fluent to calculate
the total pressure and efficiency of centrifugal fans with
different blade numbers and blade outlet angles, and optimize
the fan for a higher efficiency based on the least square
method.
II. NUMERICAL METHODS
A. Geometric Model
G4-73-serie centrifugal fans are widely used as induced and
draft fans of the boiler which match to 200MW and 300MW
power generating units. In this paper, G4-73No.8D centrifugal
fan was studied, and its geometric model was shown in Figure
1. External diameter of the blade is
2
80cm D =
, the blade angle
is
2
45
y
=

the number of blade is 12, the blades style is
airfoil, and the blades uniformly distributed along the circle,
volute arbors width is 52cm and gap of tongue snail's is 8cm.
(Units:mm
Figure 1. Fan structure diagram
B. Equations and Boundary Conditions
In the centrifugal fan, the three-dimensional motion of the
gas is thought to be the incompressible and steady flow, and
calculated by using three-dimension Reynolds both
conservation Navier-Stokes equations. As the fluid in a state of
turbulence, the standard k equation of the second model
was selected as the turbulence model, and when near wall, the
standard wall function was used. Calculating method was
SEGREGATED implicit method, the pressure - speed coupled
using the SIMPLE calculation method, and turbulent kinetic
energy, dissipation of turbulence and the momentum equation
all use second-order discrete upwind.
Equations include the continuity equation, the momentum
equation and k equation.
0
i
i
u
x

(1)
2
1
( ) ( )
3
i
i j j i
j
i i j
i i
u
P u
u uu
t x x x x x x

| |

+ = + + |
|

\ .
(2)
2
k
j k j
k
C
D k
G
Dt x x

( | |
( |

= + + ( |

( |
|
(
\ .
(3)
7
2
0

520
1400
1
5
6
0

8
0
0

200
impeller
v
o
l
u
t
e

978-1-4244-2487-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE
2
2
1 2 k
j j
k
C
D
C G C
Dt x x k k

( | |
( |

= + + ( |

( |
|
(
\ .
(4)
Among them
1
C

=1.44
2
C

=1.92
C

=0.09
k
=1.0

=1.3[5].
C. Result Comparisons
Figure 2 shows performance curves obtained through
numerical simulation and experiment. point A shows the status
of the design points, It can be seen that the error of the total
pressure of the fan which attained from numerical simulation is
less than 3%, while the efficiency error in the design point is
less than 2.3%, so it can be drawn conclusion that the
calculation results derived by numerical simulation are accurate
enough to predict the inner flow of the fan and the results could
be used as the guide to optimize the impeller and verify the
accuracy of numerical simulations.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
A
q
v
(m
3
/s)

exp
sim
(a) Performance curves of (b) Performance curves of
total pressure and flow efficiency and flow
Figure 2. Performance curves of numerical simulation and experimental results
III. THE OPTIMIZATION OF CENTRIFUGAL FAN IMPELLER
A. Optimum Model
The factors that impact fans performance are coupled with
each other, various factors have a combined action together to
the fan performance. This paper take the efficiency as a
maximizations goal, take the number of blade of Z and the
angle of
2 y

as the variable quantity, and construct the

optimized mathematical model:
( )
11 14
43 48
Max ,
S.t
f x y
x
y

< <
< <
(5)
In the model, ( , ) f x y represents the objective function of
efficiency ,and parameters x and y separately represent the
number of blade and the angle of
2 y

.
B. The least-squares Curved Fitting of Rectangular Domain
the function valuation
ij
z of curved face ( , ) f x y on the n
m net points of rectangular domain for ( , )
i j
x y is known,
and the curved face ( , ) f x y is:
1 1
0 0
( , )
N M
i j
ij
i j
f x y a x y

= =
=
__
(6)
Its approximately parameters { }
ij N M
a

can be looked for

by least squares method. And N M-order algebraic equations
with regard to { }
ij
a can be obtained as follow:
1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0
( , ) ( , ) 0
n m N M
i j i j
s t s t ij s t s t
s t i j
x y f x y a x y x y

= = = =
(
=
(

__ __
(7)
The equations can be solved with programming by
software of MATLAB software, and get the curved surface
fitting expression of efficiency with regard to Z and
2 y

.
And the values of Z and
2 y

at maximum surface point are

solved by search method. 4 4 high-order fitting is used to
ensure the fit accuracy. The basic data for fitting obtained
through numerical simulation is shown in table.1.
TABL EFFICIENCY VALUE OF DIFFERENT PARAMETERS
IMPELLER
2y

Z
43 44 45 46 47 48
11 74.7 75.1 74.8 66.5 72.6 70.8
12 75.9 74.6 76.58 75 74.5 73.7
13 75.9 76.7 76.9 76.3 75.5 72
14 76.5 76.7 77 76.8 74.7 73.6
The optimization results are Z =14 and
2
44.5
y

=

.
C. Optimization and Analysis of the Results
In order to verify the optimization results, the fan was
optimized by using the FLUENT software and compared with
un-optimized for inner flow field and performance curve. Fig.
3 shows the distribution map for total and dynamic pressure of
impeller channel. And large-scale spiral vortex is showed.
Because of volutes diffusing action, large-scale secondary
flow vortex is formatted between the front end plate of
impeller, volute and collector. Figures (a)(b) display that the
scale, intensity and center of secondary flow vortex change as
the increasing of the volute capacity in the different
circumferential cross section of the volute.
Also Fig. 3 indicates that the intensity of secondary flow
vortex is lower and the flow field distribution is more
homogeneous after optimized. Then optimization reduced the
energy degradation. And local outlet nearby the front end plate
of impeller is blocked on the 0 cross-section of volute
channel before optimization because of rotating center closing
with the outlet of impeller, inducing the deviation of air flow in
the outlet and vortex low-energy air flow mixed, the energy
degradation increased. Figures (a) and (c) present that the
vortex intensity reduces and the vortex center moves to back
plate of the volute far from impeller outlet so that the local
block of fan outlet reduced and the energy loss that resulting
from the mixing of low-energy air flow reduced after
optimization. Based on charts (b) and (d), before optimization,
there is a large scale vortex on the 180cross-section, at the
same time, a small one on the fore end plate of the volute near
the anti-vortex ring. The energy loss caused by small vortex is
lower but cant be neglected because of the interaction with the
big one. After optimization, the intensity of both big and small
vortex is reduced, and the size of the latter one is only a half of
the previous mode, which greatly reduced the energy loss
caused by the interaction.
(a) 0section/ before optimization (c) 0section/ after optimization

(b) 180section / before optimization (d) 180section / after optimization
Figure3. Streamline of different flow passage section
Fig. 4 shows the distributions of the full pressure and
dynamic pressure in cross-section of volute before and after
optimization. In the picture (a), there is a low-energy field
where full pressure is lower in 120region of the original fan.
The field continues to fan outlet and caused by diffusing action
of volute and secondary flow vortex running along spiral
direction, which have mentioned above. By means of
increasing the number of leaves by 12 pieces to 14, the
impeller working area added obviously and function strength
enhanced. Then figure (c) shows that full pressure of fan
enhanced after optimizing. In addition, exit setting
angle
2 y

has been reduced 0.5, which reducing the full

pressure, but the proper exit setting angle improves the inner
flow field and the low-energy fluid regions vanishing on 120
region. Energy losses reduced in volute and the distribution of
full pressure is more homogeneous in the fan, making up the
energy loss caused by reducing outlet setting angle.
By figures (a) and (b) it was known that tremendous
pressure gradient appears on the volute tongue of fan and
double obviously low-energy fluid regions turn up on the
upstream surface of the volute tongue and fan outlet near it.
Due to the sharp narrowing of the volute tongue channel, air
flow nearby separated into two parts: a part of high-speed air
flow approaches to volute tongues upstream and mixes with
the main air flowing out from impeller outlet around the volute
tongue, which result in the direction offsetting of the main flow
and energy losing on the upstream surface of the volute tongue;
and another slow-speed part approaches to volute tongues
downstream, which causes the stack of the low power fluid and
the block of parts of outlet on account of the obviously velocity
gradient near the fan outlet. Figures (c) and (d) reveal that
optimization to outlet setting angle improves inner flow field of
the fan, increasing the total pressure on the volute tongue
upstream surface and the fan outlet nearing volute tongue
significantly, reducing the low-energy fluid regions either.

(a) Total pressure/before optimization (c) Dynamic pressure/before optimization

(b)Total pressure / after optimization (d) Dynamic pressure /after optimization
Figure 4. The total pressure and dynamic pressure distribution of volute section
Fig. 5 shows the distributions of full pressure and dynamic
pressure of initial and optimized condition. According to the
figures (a) and (c), the full pressure grows evenly along the
circumferential direction before optimization. It can form a low
pressure area at the front of the suction surface. And this
indicates the existence of the positive attack angle, which
causes the eddy-current in suction surface and the low energy
region. After optimized, the full pressure of the flow grows
evenly, and the area at the front of the suction surface
decreases following the increase of the pressure. That thanks to
the reduction of impeller outlet setting angle
2 y

. Then the
positive incidence angle and he eddy current loss of the suction
surface reduced accordingly.
Figures (b) and (d) indicate the offset to pressure side of the
dynamic pressure isoline in the middle flow channel. That
caused by the different velocity between the pressure and
suction surface in impeller channel, inducing uneven
distribution of the dynamic pressure and current-jet flow
structure in the channel outlet. After optimization the number
of leaf blade increased, and enlarging the flow channel,
narrowing the width and lengthen the acting time of vane to air
current. At the same time, the reducing of the flow channel
width cuts down the differential dynamic between the pressure
and suction surface, bringing the dynamic pressure distribution
more homogeneous and reducing energy loss caused by
current-jet flow.
(a) Total pressure distribution before optimization
(b) Dynamic pressure distribution before optimization
(c) Total pressure distribution after optimization
(d) Dynamic pressure distribution after optimization
Figure 5. The total pressure and dynamic pressure distribution of impeller passage
Fig. 6 is the performance curves before and after
optimization. Through the comparison it is obtained that the
fans performance has improved integrality and total pressure
enhanced widely near the operating mode especially. Further
more, full pressure and efficiency respectively enhanced
by3.6% and 1.4% averagely during the full flow range. Under
the design flow, the full pressure is 1912 Pa and the efficiency
=77.3%, and the initial values are only 1844 Pa and 76.8%,
and the values respectively increased by 3.7% and 0.5%. The
results reach to optimization purpose as remarkable effect.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
2100
2200
2300
A
p
t
(pa)
q
v
(m
3
/s)
sim
opt
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
A

q
v
(m
3
/s)
sim
opt
(a) total pressure and flow (b) efficiency and flow
Figure 6. Performance curves before and after optimization
IV. CONCLUSIONS
(1) Numerical simulation can accurately predict the
performance of centrifugal fan and the details of the flow field
in the fan. And it also has the important guiding significance in
researching interior losses of centrifugal fans, optimizing
impeller and modifying fans.
(2) Impeller optimization weakened the vortex intensity of
secondary flow in volute, and reduced the energy loss caused
by the secondary flow vortex and volute tongue of fan.
Through the optimization of blades number Z and impeller
outlet setting angle
2 y

, the energy loss in fans impeller

channel caused by wake current-jet and positive incidence
angle was reduced.
(3) Impeller structure optimization plan was derived by using
the least squares method in the rectangular territory. After the
optimization, the averages of full pressure and efficiency
enhanced respectively by 3.6% and 1.4% through the full flow,
while, the growth rates of them are 3.7% and 0.5% under the
design operating mode.
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