Numerical Investigation on Periodic Simulation of Flow Through Ducted Axial Fan

In this paper, the flow through an axial fan Axial fan is suitably simulated considering relatively low mesh sizes and benefiting from the periodic boundary condition Periodic boundary condition . The current periodic boundary condition Periodic boundary condition implementation has major differences with the past classical ones, which were routinely used in literature. In this regard, we first discuss the ambiguities behind the current periodic geometry and the proposed mesh generation and possible boundary condition choices. Then, proper remedies are proposed to resolve them. One remedy returns to the proper choice of pitch ratio magnitude. After practicing various pitch ratio magnitudes, we eventually arrive to an optimum one, which provides suitable numerical accuracy despite using sufficiently low number of mesh elements. In order to validate the achieved numerical solutions, they are compared with the experiments and other available numerical results. The proposed approach can be also used in simulations of other turbomachinary cases, where there are serious computer memory and computational time limitations. For instance, using the current periodic boundary condition Periodic boundary condition approach, one can readily simulate very huge wind tunnels considering a full 3D model of its fans, i.e., including its rotor and stator Stator instead of considering simple fan pressure jump or actuator disc models.