Necessary Equations for Fan Design

Total Pressure, Air Horse Power, Brake Horse Power, Efficiencies

Total Pressure = Static Pressure + Velocity Pressure

TP SP VP
Fan outlet velocity

Vo

cfm
Ao

[ fpm]

Velocity Pressure (Dynamic Pressure)

Vo
VP

4005

[inWC ]

Power output of the fan (Air Horse Power)

ahp

cfm TP
6356

[hp ]

Mechanical Efficiency (Total Efficiency)

ME TE

ahp
bhp

[%]

bhp= motor output = fan input

Motor Efficiency (Electrical Efficiency)

EE

0.746 bhp
kW

[%]

Efficiency of the set

Set Eff . ME EE

[%]

Axial Flow Fans

Propeller Fan
Propeller fan is designed to operate in the range near free delivery, to
move large air volumes against low static pressure.
The motor is usually on the inlet side, but in special applications it can be
on the outlet side.

Propeller fans

Large-size propeller-fan wheels run at low speeds and therefore are belt
driven. If the motor horsepower is large, good efficiency is desired, and to
accomplish this, the fan wheel has a 20% to 40% hub-tip ratio and airfoil
blades with a twist, resulting in blade angles between 30 to 50 degrees at
the hub and between 10 to 25 degrees at tip.
Small propeller fans can be built with either direct drive or belt drive.
Here the motor horsepower is small, and fan efficiency, therefore, is of
minor importance.
Tube axial Fans
Tube axial fan is a glorified propeller fan with a cylindrical housing about
one diameter long.

Tube Axial flow fan

The upstream motor has the disadvantage that some turbulence will be
produced by the motor support ahead of the fan wheel. This may affect
the efficiency and will result in somewhat increased noise level.
In general a blade, operating in turbulent airflow, will not function
properly. Turbulence past the fan wheel, therefore, is not too harmful. It
just increases the resistance of the system and therefore the static pressure
against which the fan will operate.
Turbulent ahead of the fan wheel is harmful. It not only increases the
static pressure required, but it also results In the blades operating in
turbulent airflow and therefore with lower efficiency and a higher noise
level.
The fan wheel of tube axial fan can be similar to that of a propeller fan. It
often has a medium sized hub diameter about 30% to 50% of the blade
outside diameter, in case of direct drive preferably not too much different
from the motor diameter for streamline flow conditions.
Vane-Axial Fan
Hub Diameter of Vane-Axial Fans
Usually between 50% to 80% of wheel diameter. It is designed to operate
in the range of fairly high static pressures, and this requires a large hub
diameter.

19000
SP
rpm

inch

30226

rpm

mm

d min
d min

Pa

Smaller hub diameter might result in an inadequate performance of the

inner blade portion, i.e. turbulence and possible reverse air flow near the
hub. This is called stalling.

Vane Axial flow fan

The SP produced by vane-axial fan (outlet vanes)

SP 3.34 109 rpm z B CL l W ;
2

1
W V VB Vr ;
2

2
a

D2 d 2

2.33 105 SP
cfm
2 r

VB
; Aa

rpm ; Vr
; Va
rpm
r
A
576
12

a
For good efficiency, the static pressure produced should be the same for
any radius from hub to tip.

Wheel Diameter of Vane-Axial Fans

cfm

rpm

inch

Q&
d 19

rpm

mm

D min d 2 61
D min

If the customer can not accept a large wheel diameter, a two-stage axial
flow fan may solve the problem.

Vane-Axial Fans of Various Designs

1. Wide blade tips result in high efficiency and quiet operation, but
they cause in considerable motor overload at the point of no
delivery.
2. Medium tips reduce the maximum static pressure and the nodelivery overload.
3. Narrow tips result in a non-overloading. Efficiency is slightly
lower and the noise level is slightly higher.
Guide Vanes
The cross section of the guide vanes can be either an airfoil shape or a
single line of proper curvature. Airfoil vanes are made as aluminium
castings or sometimes of hollow-steel construction. The single-sheet steel
construction is used more commonly and will result in satisfactory
performance, so extra expense of the airfoil construction is seldom
justified.
The angle of leading (outlet vanes) or trailing (inlet vanes)

tan

Vr
Va

Number of Blades zB
The pressure is proportional to the product of (zBl).
Turbulence and noise mostly produced by the edges (both leading and
trailing) and not by the surface. Therefore, fewer and wider blades will
result in a better fan efficiency and lower noise level.
If the number of blades becomes too small and the blade width therefore
too large, we are facing two conflicting requirements: fewer blades for
better efficiency and less noise but more blades for less weight, etc.
As a compromise between efficiency and cost, 5 to 12 blades are good
practical solutions.

5 z B 12

At the hub, the blades must not overlap for two reasons:
1. Overlapping blades might chock the airflow
2. problem in sand casting
Usually overlapping blades will be avoided if

3.4d
zB

This will be the blade width at the hub.

Number of Guide Vanes zV
There are two simple rules:
1. zV should be larger than zB because the guide vanes should be
closed to each other. The risk of chocking the airflow due to
overlapping is remote.
2. The number of zV and zB should have no common divisor;
otherwise two blades would pass two vanes simultaneously
increasing noise level.
Pressure Safety margin
The peak pressure of the operating range should be 30 t0 50% higher than
the pressure required for the application.
Typical Features of Axial-Flow Fans with Direct Drive
Type of fan

Propeller fan

Tubeaxial fan

Casing

Guide vanes

Mounting ring or
mounting panel
Inlet side of panel
preferred
None

Short cylindrical
housing
Inside housing,
outlet side preferred
None

Hub-tip ratio
SP
Blade angle at hub
Blade angle at tip
Max. mech. efficen.

0-40%
0-1
30-50 deg.
10-25 deg.
70%

30-50%
0.5 -2.5
30-50 deg.
10-25 deg.
75%

Motor support

Vaneaxial fan
Single-stage
Cylindrical housing
Inside housing,
outlet side preferred
Past fan wheel
preferred
45-80%
1-9
30-60 deg.
10-35 deg.
90%

Vaneaxial fan
Two-stage
Cylindrical
housing
Inside housing,
between stages
None or
between stages
50-80%
4-18
30-60 deg.
10-35 deg.
70%

Application with fluctuating systems

In some designs the no-delivery bhp rises considerably above the
maximum bhp in the operating range. This happens whenever the blade
width at the tip is much wider than the blade width at the hub and the
blade angles are small.
Wide tip blades may have to be avoided in such applications. And the
motor should be equipped with overload protection.

Noise Level
The noise level produced by well-designed axial flow fans is lower than
that of centrifugal fans of the same tip speed, but it is more sensitive to
the effect of turbulent airflow.
Produced noise can be due to:
1. operating in the stalling range
2. high tip speed
3. lack of an inlet bell
4. obstructions in the air stream closed to the blades
5. elbows close to the fan
6. vibration due to poor balance or duo to a resonance condition
7. single-thickness blades as opposed to airfoil blades
8. inlet guide vanes as opposed to outlet guide vanes
9. many narrow blades as opposed to fewer and wider blades
Outlet diffuser and outlet tail piece
A diffuser and tail piece will increase the fan efficiency by about 4%, due
to a slight increase in air volume and static pressure. This may permit a
slight blade angle reduction and consequently a slight reduction in bhp. In
large units, such as those used for mine ventilation, this bhp reduction
may be considerable.
In very large units where belt drive is used and the motor is located
outside the housing, the outlet diffuser and tail piece are usually included.

Outlet diffuser and tail piece

Selection of axial-flow fans

The borderline between tube-axial and vane-axial fans is quite flexible.
The range for centrifugal fans widely overlaps with the range for twostage axial fans and even with the range for single-stage vane-axial fans.
Certain air volume and static pressure are required for certain system.

As a rule we can obtain same air volume and static pressure with a
smaller fan at higher speed and with a larger fan at lower speed.
The advantages of using larger fans:
1. It will have lower power consumption (bhp) and therefore a lower
operating cost.
2. It will have a lower tip speed and therefore a lower noise level.
The advantages of using smaller fans:
1. It will be more compact.
2. It will have lower first cost.
Overlapping performance ranges
Requirement for air volume and static pressure often determine what type
of fan should be used for a specific application:

3
SP inWC
4
1
SP 3 inWC
2

Propeller fan
Tube-Axial-Fan if fan should exhaust from a duct
Vane-Axial-Fan if fan should blow into a duct

high and SP 1.5 inWC Vane-Axial-Fan regardless of fan blows/ exhausts

SP 6 inWC Two-stage-Axial-Fan but efficiency will be low
Centrifugal-Fan produces better efficiency
Advantages of vane-axial fan over centrifugal-fan:
1. Greater compactness
2. Lower first cost
3. straight-line installation
4. lower sound level at the same tip speed
Advantages of centrifugal-fan over vane-axial fan:
1. Natural adaptability to installation requiring 90 deg. turn of the air
stream
2. Better accessibility of the motor compared with direct-drive vaneaxial fans
3. Better protection of the motor against hot or contaminated gases
4. Greater assurance for operation in the efficient and quite
performance range, particularly for systems with fluctuating flow
resistance

Sample design calculation for vane-axial fan

pp. 4.62 and Table 4.8
Axial-flow fans driven by three different methods
There are three methods for driving a fan:
1. driven by an engine
2. driven by a turbine: which are used in locations of hazardous
atmosphere or where electric power is not available. A typical
application would be a marine ventilator used to exhaust the gas
from the inside of an oil tanker
3. driven by reaction to compressed-air jets: they are particularly well
suited for the ventilation of confined spaces, for the removal of
hazardous fumes or of contaminated air from welding and
sandblasting operations, and for locations where compressed air is
available but electric power is not.
The delivery ratio is the volume delivered divided by the volume of the
compressed air consumed