The axial flow fan serves to move air from the front of the blades to the rear of the

blades. Such the movement of air is generated by pressure increase on the positive
pressure surface due to the rotation of the blades. Since according to the rotation of
the blades, positive pressure is generated on the pressure side and negative pressure
is generated on the suction side
The tapered shape follows Bernoulli's principle, forcing the air to move faster over
the curved top of the blade, reducing pressure and creating lift or thrust from below.
These blades are angled and, as they spin, they cut into the air and send it at higher
pressure (pressure side) underneath the fan blade and at lower pressure (suction
side) over the top of the fan blade. These two flows mix in the process of flowing
apart from the trailing edge of the blade and vortices form as the two flows' different
pressure levels get equalised.

The vortex emission occurs in any type of fan blade whenever it is producing lift.
Hence, the noise emission and the loss of efficiency due to vortex emission are
unavoidable in any type of fan blade. Moreover, the vortex emission also occurs
when there is flow separation over the blade.

In the cpu cooling fan case, turbulence is highly undesirable as it will generate
random, low frequency vibration and noise can be heard by users.

Notches added:
To reduce the above problem Two vortex control notches are cut into each blade's
trailing edge.
Due to the two notches, the flows along the suction and pressure side to meet and
merge more smoothly as the upper and lower fan blade airflows joined at varying
points along the trailing edge . This allows for less tumbling or turbulence and
velocity loss in the vicinity of the trailing edge. As a result, the velocity gradient
decreases compared with the conventional fan.
And the single vortex line along smooth trailing edges is broke up into smaller
vortices. A lower vortex emission also implies in a lower amount of the energy
provided to the fan being spent in the vortex production, such that a greater amount
of energy can be used to produce work in the fluid. Hence, an increase in the fan
efficiency is resulted.
In order to achieve the smoothest possible transition across the profile, the
Vortex-Control Notches are rounded in shape.
It is a view for comparing velocity patterns at the blade trailing edge between the
case where the blade trailing edge has notches and the case where it is of
conventional case
When the blade trailing edge has not notches, the flows on the negative pressure
surface side and the pressure surface side of blade join at the blade trailing edge as
shown here but a high velocity loss occurs immediately after the joining of flows
because of the presence of thickness t of blade trailing edge. At this velocity loss
portion, the velocity difference between the adjacent fluids is large (velocity gradient
is great), so that a great turbulence occurs. This turbulence causes the lift variation of
the whole blade, generating high noise.
On the other hand, when the blade trailing edge has notches , the flows begin to join
gradually at the notches and have joined considerably in the vicinity of the trailing
edge, resulting in reduced velocity loss. For this reason, the velocity gradient
decreases as compared with the above case, by which the generation of turbulence
is decreased, resulting in lower noise. At the same time, since the velocity loss
portion of the joining portion decreases, the mixing loss decreases, so that the fan
efficiency is enhanced.

Conclusion:

As shown before , we have done several experiment which are mainly focus on air
velocity test, fan revolution test and air pressure test have been demonstrated. There
are four recommended modification for the CPU fans. They include adding
Vortex-Control Notches to the blades' trailing edges, reducing fan outlet size and
using motor oil,redesign the fan as an axial compressor and dual fan. Here is a
summary of the modification:
1.As fan spin, turbulence is formed at the edge of the blade. Vortex-Control Notches
to the blades' trailing edges is effective in decrease the vortices density which is the
prime culprit of lowered efficiency. The notches help the transition between the
suction and pressure side smoother, leading to less turbulence and thus better
performance is resulted. Our fan’s volume flow rate increase about 52% after having
the vortex- control notches.
2.By converging nozzle, diminish outlet area end up with higher exit velocity can be
achieved as stated by the continuity equation. Thus higher flow rate of the fan outlet
can be found. In our experiment, the volume flow rate is increased by 20 % which
proves it is an effective method.
3.Using motor oil on the motor and blade surface, the friction between the fan and
motor and the friction between fan and air both reduced, increasing the rpm power
as the power is related to the cubic of the RPM ratio. Significant improvement can be
seen.
4. Learn from compressor, Increase the air flow velocity at inlet and outlet and thus
the mass flow rate by combining two fans. Also stator is inserted between them in
order to extend the route of flow to increase the pressure of the flow rate. By
Bernouilli's Equation, increase the pressure of the flow rate and outlet volume flow
rate is expected.
Three of them which are adding Vortex-Control Notches to the blades' trailing edges,
reducing fan outlet size and using motor oil have been successful to increase the
efficiency.