Last modified: 2013-08-11
Abstract
The high pressure characteristics of regenerative blower causes aerodynamic noise related with the pressure rise and the turbulence mechanisms of air in regenerative blower. In the present study, an aero-acoustic performance analysis method is developed by combining aerodynamic performance and acoustic noise models. As the first step of the present study, the pressure rise of air passing through impellers of regenerative blower is analyzed by using momentum exchange theory with various leakage and pressure loss models. Once overall pressure rise through multiple impellers and corresponding rotating pressure pattern of each impeller are determined from performance analysis, modal analysis for discrete frequency noise is applied to determine acoustic pressure radiating at impeller passing frequency and its harmonics. Broadband noise resulted from the turbulence in regenerative blower is modeled by a correlation derived from fan noise similarity rule. The present aero-acoustic performance analysis method is applied to actual regenerative blowers with different design parameters, and its predicted performance and noise level results are favorable compared with the test results. The predicted noise spectrum of regenerative blowers are also well-agreed with the measurement over entire frequency range.