Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

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Applied Acoustics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust

Combined acoustic and aerodynamic investigation of the effect of inlet

geometry on tip leakage flow noise of free-inlet free-exhaust low-speed
axial flow fans
Tamás Benedek ⇑, János Vad, Bálint Lendvai
Department of Fluid Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Bertalan Lajos Street 4-6, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The performance and the emitted noise of a free inlet – free exhaust axial flow fan are influenced by the
Received 30 March 2021 inlet geometry. In the present paper, the effect of bellmouth entries with various sizes on the tip leakage
Received in revised form 10 October 2021 flow (TLF) noise is discussed. The aerodynamics phenomena are investigated using inlet velocity profile
Accepted 20 October 2021
measurements and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Noise source maps have been
Available online 16 November 2021
derived from phased array microphone measurements using the Rotating Source Identifier (ROSI) beam-
forming algorithm. The aerodynamic and acoustic data are evaluated in a combined manner. The results
Keywords:
showed that with the use of a bellmouth entry of proper size, the TLF can be moderated, the double-
Axial flow fan
Beamforming
leakage flow (DLF) can be eliminated, and the sound pressure level of the emitted noise can be reduced
Bellmouth entry by 5–6 dB.
Fan noise Ó 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Tip leakage flow noise (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
A large amount of low-speed axial flow fans operate in the
vicinity of humans, therefore the noise reduction of these machi-
nes is an important issue in addition to the aerodynamic perfor-
mance and the high efficiency. The dominant proportion of the
noise emitted by axial flow fans is the aeroacoustic noise of the
blading: the turbulence ingestion noise (TI), which is the interac-
tion of the upstream turbulence and the leading edges, and the
self-noise of the fan blades. According to literature [1–3] the self-
noise sources of the blades are as follows:

Turbulent boundary layer (TBL) noise: generated by the wall
pressure fluctuations due to boundary layer turbulence.

Separated flow (SF) noise: the significant increase of the emit-
ted noise in case of boundary layer separation

Vortex-shedding (VS) noise: generated by the coherent vortices
shedding over the blade profile and the trailing edge.

Turbulent boundary layer-trailing edge (TBL-TE) noise: the
noise generated by the interaction of the turbulent boundary
and the trailing edge.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: benedek@ara.bme.hu (T. Benedek), vad@ara.bme.hu (J. Vad),
lendvai@ara.bme.hu (B. Lendvai).

Tip leakage flow (TLF) noise: generated by the turbulent leakage
flow over the blade tip.
In the literature [4–6] it is well-documented that the tip leakage
flow (TLF) can be a dominant noise source. TLF occurs due to the
pressure difference between the pressure and suction side of the
blade tip, making the phenomenon inevitable in the case of axial
flow fans. After passing through the tip clearance (TC), the TLF rolls
up into a well distinguishable vortex structure, called tip leakage
vortex (TLV), which propagates downstream in the blade passage.
In [5,7,8] it is documented, that as the TC size increased, the TLF
was strengthening, which means the increase of the TLF noise
and the related aerodynamic losses (blockage effect of the
extended TLF, thickened boundary layer on the annular walls).
Increased tip clearance and reduced local flow coefficient of the
blade tip area increase the exit angle of the TLV compared to the
blade suction side surface. This may result in such TLV trajectory
that the TLV impinges on the pressure side of the following blade
[5,9]. The interaction between the TLV and the blade surface
induces sound emission, furthermore, it increases the blockage of
the mean flow, which contributes to significantly increased losses
[5,7]. The impingement of the TLV on the pressure surface can
cause some of the TLF to pass through the TC again, resulting in
double leakage flow (DLF) [10]. As the DLF interacts with the
TLV, a further increase in aerodynamic losses, as well as in the
noise strength are observed [7]. In this paper it is also shown, with

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2021.108488
0003-682X/Ó 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

Nomenclature
mid middle
Latin letters s sampling
f frequency t blade tip
Ka number of the averaged windows
L axial length of the casing Abbreviations
Ls number of data points in the sample BG background
n rotational speed BM bellmouth entry
NW window length CFD computational fluid dynamics
OW window overlap circ circular direction
ptot total pressure DLF double leakage flow
pst static pressure LE leading edge
R dimensionless radius (nondimensionalized by r t ) MP measurement plane
r radius PAM phased array microphone
SSL source strength level ROSI Rotating Source Identifier
Ta measurement length RPM revolution per minute
u blade circumferential velocity SF separated flow
SH short-tapered entry
Greek letters SST shear stress transport
q density TBL turbulent boundary layer
U global flow coefficient (annulus area-averaged axial TC tip clearance
velocity divided by ut ) TE trailing edge
u local flow coefficient (pitchwise area-averaged axial TI turbulence ingestion noise
velocity divided by ut ) TLF tip leakage flow


w local total pressure rise coefficient (¼ 2  Dptot = q  u2t ) TLV tip leakage vortex
VS vortex shedding
Sub- and superscripts
bm bellmouth

the increase of TC DLF occurs in all operating conditions, while in
the case of normal TC the DLF was only experienced in near stall
state. In [8] CFD simulations are presented. The results showed that
the DLF originates from different chord positions in the case of dif-
ferent operating points. However, the TLF from the leading edge
always flows out directly from the blade passage. The results also
showed that with the occurrence of the DLF the sensitivity of the
machine’s efficiency to the TLF increases. Some research focuses
to avoid the formation of the DLF using casing fences [11] or casing
grooves [12].
The effect of inflow conditions on axial fan noise was in the
focus of numerous research [13–16]. The inflow conditions for free
inlet fans placed close to the intake, such as ventilation fans built in
walls, are directly influenced by the shaping of the inlet section.
Since both the aerodynamic and acoustic behavior of the fan are
heavily impacted by the inflow conditions, it is of major impor-
tance [1,17,18]. In the case of fans, the flow conditions near the
periphery of the entry geometry have a direct impact on TLF and
the related noise. From an aerodynamic and acoustic point of view,
the entry geometries can be sorted: the least favorable inlet geom-
etry is the sharp-edged intake, and the most favorable is the bell-
mouth entry, which guarantees good efficiency and moderate
noise. As such, the European Standard [19] requires fitting a bell-
mouth entry in performance testing of free-inlet axial fans. In
[20] the noise reduction caused by bellmouth entries with various
radii was investigated in the case of various rotor positions. In this
paper it was shown with the application of the bellmouth entry
even 15—20 dB noise sound pressure level reduction can be
achieved. However, the aerodynamic background of the noise
reduction is not detailed in that work.
The present study aims to investigate the relation between the
inlet section shaping and the acoustic characteristics of a free inlet,
free exhaust, large clearance, short ducted axial flow fan. In the
study, a short tapered entry and bellmouth geometries are used.
2
In the aerodynamic investigations inlet velocity profile measure-
ment and CFD simulations are involved. The acoustic measure-
ments were carried out with a sound pressure level meter and a
phased array microphone (PAM) which device is widely used for
acquiring spatially resolved noise data of several types of turboma-
chinery [21–23]. For the evaluation of the PAM data, the ROSI
beamforming algorithm [24] is used, by the means of which noise
source maps can be created in a co-rotating reference frame. To
confirm the results and eliminate the noise source ambiguity orig-
inated from the rotational periodicity of the noise source maps, the
method presented in [25] is used. A related preliminary work of the
authors of the present paper is published in [26].
2. Fan of case study, measurement and simulation setup
The fan of case study (Fig. 1) has 5 forward skewed blades with
circular arc blade profiles. The radius of the blade tips are
rt ¼ 0:15 m, the hub-to-tip diameter ratio is 30%. The fan was
installed in a short (L ¼ 0:6r t ) cylindrical casing, the tip clearance
to tip radius ratio was 5%. The fan operated in free-inlet free-
exhaust condition, i.e. the static pressure rise of the fan was negli-
gible. The measurements were performed at 3 different rotational
speeds: n ¼ 950; 1175; 1400 RPM. Four inlet geometry variations
(Fig. 1) were investigated: a short-tapered (labeled as SH in the fol-
lowing), and three bellmouth entries: BM10 - r bm ¼ 0:10rt ; BM33 -
rbm ¼ 0:33rt ; BM50 - r bm ¼ 0:50r t . The profile of the bellmouth
entries was a quarter circle, and the largest radius is in accordance
with the standard [19].
Fig. 2 shows the sketch of the measurement setup. The inlet
velocity was measured using a Schiltknecht Mini-Air vane
anemometer. The measurement planes (MP) of the velocity profile
measurement are shown in Fig. 1. The inlet velocity profiles were
measured along two perpendicular diameters. The measurement
uncertainty for the aerodynamic measurements are presented in
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai
Fig. 1. (a) Sketch of the fan of case study, (b) Sketch of the short-tapered entry, (c) Sketch of the bellmouth entries.
Fig. 2. (a) Sketch of the measurement setup. (not to scale) (b) Arrangement of the microphones.
Table 1
The relative uncertainties of the aerodynamic properties.
U ½ u1 ½
5% 5%
Table 1: where U is the global flow coefficient, u1 is the local flow
coefficient and w is the local total pressure rise coefficient.
For the acoustics measurement, a ROLINE RO-1350 sound pres-
sure level meter and an OptiNav Array24R general-purpose micro-
phone array were used. The sound pressure level meter was placed
upstream side in the centerline of the fan. The distance between
the sound pressure level meter and the trailing edges of the blad-
Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488
ing was 3:66rt . The pattern of the phased array microphone is
shown in Fig. 2, the largest distance between two microphones is
w ½ 6:34rt . The distance of the PAM from the outlet surface of the fan
5%
was 3:66r t . Preliminary anemometer studies showed that the
PAM has a negligible effect on the flow field at the rotor inlet.
The plane of the microphones was parallel to the outlet surface
of the fan, and the center of the PAM was set to coincide with
the rotor axis. The focus plane of the PAM was the plane of the
trailing edges of the rotor blades. The parameters of the acoustic
sampling and data processing are listed in Table 2, where f s is
the sampling frequency, Ta is the measurement length, Ls is the
number of data points in a sample, NW is the window length, Df
is the frequency resolution, OW is the window overlap and Ka is
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Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai
Table 2
Acoustic sampling and data processing parameters.
f s ½Hz T a ½s Ls ½
44100 15 661500
the number of the averaged windows. The noise source maps were
created using the ROSI beamforming algorithm [24], therefore the
rotational speed was synchronously monitored with a non-contact
optical encoder.
Due to the periodicity of the noise source maps, a source ambi-
guity occurs with the most dominant sound source near the lead-
ing edge: it is impossible to determine, whether the blade precedes
the source peak, therefore, the noise is generated by the tip leakage
flow from the preceding blade, or the blade follows the source
peak, as the source originates from the impingement of the turbu-
lent flow on the pressure surface of the trailing blade near the tip
leading edge. In order to eliminate the noise source ambiguity
caused by the circular pattern of the ROSI beamforming maps,
the method presented in [25] was used. One of the blades was
elongated with a cardboard plate (Fig. 3) with a camber being iden-
tical to the camber of the blade tip, by the means of which, the tip
clearance of this blade was reduced to the 30% of the original tip
clearance. The cardboard plate was light-weighted in order to
avoid the vibration due to rotor imbalance, but rigid to avoid the
deformation and vibration due to flow phenomena. More details
about the measurement setup and the data processing can be
found in [25].
CFD simulations were performed for all of the measurement
cases. The calculations were carried out using the ANSYS FLUENT
15.0-19.1 software. Fig. 4 shows the simulation domain. Based on
preliminary studies, the aerodynamic effect of the supporting
struts was considered negligible, therefore one blade passage was
modeled using rotational periodic boundary conditions with an
offset of 72 . The simulation domain was divided into three parts:
the inlet and outlet zones were steady, and the zone containing the
blade was the rotating zone. In the simulations steady state was
assumed and the frozen rotor approach was used. According to
the measurements ptot ¼ 0 Pa were prescribed as inlet boundary
condition, and pst ¼ 0 Pa were prescribed as outlet boundary con-
dition. The distance of the inlet and outlet boundaries from the
center of the fan is 5dt in the radial and axial directions as well.
The effect of the turbulence was modeled using Menter’s SST
k  x model [27], which is commonly used in the case of CFD sim-
ulation of turbomachines. The Reynolds number based on blade tip
velocity and blade tip chord length was between 130 000 and 190
000 for the n ¼ 950 to 1400 RPM rotational speeds, which con-
Fig. 3. Sketch of the tip clearance reducing.
Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488
N W ½ Df ½Hz OW ½ K a ½
1024 43.1 0.5 1291
firms the assumption of the turbulence model of a fully turbulent
flow. The numerical mesh (Fig. 5) used for the simulation was a
structured H-grid mesh, which contained ca. 2.5 million hexa ele-
ments. Two-third of the elements were in the rotating zone, which
consisted of 112 elements in the pitchwise and streamwise direc-
tions and 123 elements in the spanwise direction. The number of
the cells in the tip clearance was 20 in both spanwise and pitch-
wise direction. The mesh sensitivity study showed that the spatial
resolution of the mesh is adequate.
3. Results and discussion
In this section, most of the results in graphical form are pre-
sented only for the n ¼ 1400 RPM rotation speed. However, the
results show similar trends for all other investigated rotation
speeds as well, therefore, these results can be considered
representative.
3.1. Acoustic results
The hand-held sound pressure level meter results are shown in
Table 3 with A and C-weighting. The uncertainty of the measure-
ment was estimated to be 0:2 dB. Based on the C-weighted
results, the sound pressure level decreased by 2:5—3 dB with the
application of the BM10 bellmouth entry geometry compared to
the SH entry. A further 2—3 dB sound pressure level decrease
was observed for the larger bellmouth entry radii. The A-
weighted results show lower values in terms of sound pressure
level. However, the trend is similar to the previously described
C-weighted sound levels. Fig. 6 shows the acoustic spectra of the
fan for different entry geometries in the case of n ¼ 1400 RPM.
The spectra were calculated as the maximum of the ROSI source
maps corresponding to each discrete frequency. The BG gray line
depicts the background noise with the machine turned off. Based
on the background spectrum, the fan is the dominating sound
source. With the introduction of the bellmouth entry geometry,
the acoustic spectrum remains broadband. However, the source
strength levels are decreased in the 500—2500 Hz and
4000—7000 Hz ranges compared to the SH entry. Based on mea-
surements and simulations[28] the dominant eigenfrequencies of
the fan blades are below 200 Hz. The interaction frequency of the
4
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai
Fig. 4. The CFD domain.
two supporting struts and the five fan blades is 233 Hz in the case
of the highest investigated rotor speed. According to this, the noise
sources above 500 Hz were considered as aerodynamic noise
sources. The study focusing on the frequency range of the third-
octave bands of f mid ¼ 1:0—6:3 kHz because this frequency range
is the most important from the viewpoint of the human audition
in accordance with the A-weighting [29]. An additional limit of
the investigated frequencies is the spatial resolution of the PAM.
Therefore the lower frequency limit of the investigation was set
to 2000 Hz. Previous studies [30–32] showed that, in the third-
octave bands f mid ¼ 2000—3150 Hz the dominant noise source of
the present fan is the TBL-TE noise. Based on [2] the 3:5—5:2 kHz
frequency range is dominated by the TLF noise. This is supported
in Fig. 7: the third-octave band source maps corresponding to
the different entry geometries are presented for
f mid ¼ 4000—6300 Hz nominal frequencies, in the case of
n ¼ 1400 RPM. The source maps were calculated with a dynamic
range of 7 dB. The most dominant sound source values are located
near the duct wall by the tip leading edge of the blades. Further-
more, another less dominant source appears at the trailing edge
of the blades for higher frequencies. The periodic repetition in
the source map is in accordance with the number of blades.
The source maps agree fairly well with the hand-held sound
level meter measurements: the maximum source level values are
decreased with the introduction of the bellmouth entry. No signif-
icant difference can be observed between the BM33 and BM50
entries. Nevertheless, in both cases the most dominant source
peaks appear near the tip trailing edge, the peaks were rotated
by about half of the tip spacing (36 ) compared to the SH entry.
The source maps corresponding to the BM10 entry show the tran-
sition between the SH and large radii bellmouth entries: the most
dominant sound source is located at the tip trailing edge, still, sec-
ondary source peaks can be observed at the leading edge as well.
Fig. 8 illustrates the sound source strengths along the R ¼ 0:95
radius for different nominal frequencies. The circumferential angle
is defined in relation to the horizontal plane with a clockwise pos-
itive direction. Based on the figures, it can be determined, that due
to the installation of the bellmouth entries the tip leading edge
sound sources are reduced or eliminated. Furthermore, the sources
located near the trailing edge, which can be observed in the case of
the SH entry as well, become dominant.
The presented measurement results show, that replacing the
short-tapered entry with the bellmouth entry specified in the stan-
dard [19] (rbm ¼ 0:50r t ) results in 5 dB sound strength level reduc-
tion. However, based on the hand-held sound level meter
measurements and the sound source maps, an equivalent reduc-
5
Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488
tion of sound level can be achieved even with the smaller,
rbm ¼ 0:33rt radius bellmouth entry geometry. Furthermore, it
can be noted, that the sound pressure levels slightly increased
for the larges bellmouth entry compared to the smaller radius,
BM33 bellmouth entry. Since, there is no significant difference
between the BM33 and BM50 noise source maps in the investi-
gated frequencies, the marginally increased sound pressure level
is unlikely to originate from flow-related sources. However, the
increase in sound level can be caused by mechanical noise, as the
additional weight and geometrical size of the largest bellmouth
entry could change the mechanical characteristics of the fan, also,
the radiating surface increases with the size of the bellmouth
entry.
3.2. Aerodynamic results
Table 4 shows the flow coefficients calculated from the inlet
velocity profile measurements and CFD at different rotational
speeds for all entry geometries. For the SH entry, the difference
between the measurement and the catalogue value related to
0 Pa static pressure rise (Ucatalogue ¼ 0:315) is in the range of the
measurement uncertainty (Table 1). The measurement data agree
fairly well with the CFD results, the differences between the
related values are below the 5% measurement uncertainty
(Table 1). Based on the flow coefficient data and considering the
measurement uncertainty, the operating point of the fan was only
sightly affected by the introduction of the bellmouth entries.
The dimensionless axial velocity profiles along the span, at the
entry of the duct (MP), are shown in Fig. 9 for measurement and
CFD as well for n = 1400 RPM. The curves for the different rota-
tional speeds are in fair agreement. The inlet velocity increases
monotonously along the span, departing from the uniform axial
inlet velocity condition used frequently in rotor design, the slope
of the curves is similar. In the case of the short-tapered entry, slight
differences can be observed between the measurement and the
CFD: the simulation moderately overpredicts the axial velocity
on lower radii, the difference is below 10%. Also, low axial velocity
values near the duct wall were predicted by the simulation, how-
ever, the measurement device was not suitable for registering that.
For the bellmouth entries, the differences between the correspond-
ing axial velocity profiles are in the range of the measurement
uncertainty. The dimensionless velocity profiles for each entry
geometry are similar up to R ¼ 0:85. Above which, the velocity
decrease near the duct wall was reduced in the case of BM10, com-
pared to the SH entry, and it almost disappeared completely for
BM33 and BM50. Based on the flow coefficients and axial velocity
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

Fig. 5. The CFD mesh.

Table 3
Sound pressure levels.

n ½RPM 950 1175 1400

A weigh. C weigh. A weigh. C weigh. A weigh. C weigh

SPL ½dB SH 65.2 71.4 70.7 78.1 74.7 81.1

BM10 61.0 68.2 67.2 75.7 71.6 78.4
BM33 59.5 65.5 65.4 73.0 68.5 76.0
BM50 60.1 66.6 66.0 73.5 68.8 75.5

6
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

Fig. 6. The acoustic spectra of the background, short-tapered and bellmouth entry, n ¼ 1400 RPM.

Fig. 7. Noise source maps for the different entry geometries, n ¼ 1400 RPM.

profiles, the CFD simulations can be considered capable of deter-
mining qualitative trends.
The dimensionless axial velocity distributions on the cylindrical
surface at R = 0.95, which incorporates the blade tip as well, are
shown in Fig. 10 for n = 1400 RPM rotational speed. In the case
of the SH entry geometry, upstream of the blade leading edge, a
peripheral stagnation zone develops due to the low-energy incom-
ing flow caused by the SH entry. Due to this annular stagnation
region, the flow near the duct wall has low axial and high relative
tangential velocity. In the case of the BM10 geometry, the size of
this stagnation zone is reduced, and it is eliminated if the bell-
mouth entries with the larger radius were applied. In the case of

7
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

Fig. 8. Noise source strength distribution along the R ¼ 0:95 radius, n ¼ 1400 RPM.

Table 4
Flow coefficients.

n ½RPM 950 1175 1400

Meas. CFD Meas. CFD Meas. CFD
U ½ SH 0.305 0.294 0.302 0.289 0.304 0.306
BM10 0.295 0.273 0.289 0.275 0.294 0.280
BM33 0.280 0.266 0.280 0.278 0.281 0.277
BM50 0.291 0.277 0.291 0.303 0.292 0.296

8
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

Fig. 9. Axial velocity distribution at MP, n ¼ 1400 RPM.

Fig. 10. Dimensionless axial velocity distribution on the R = 0.95 cylinder mantle, a) SH b) BM10 c) BM33 d) BM50.

Fig. 11. Path lines originate at the blade tips, a) SH b) BM10 c) BM33 d) BM50.

9
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai
Fig. 12. Dimensionless axial velocity distribution on the R = 0.95 cylinder mantle, a)
original tip clearance, b) reduced tip clearance, SH entry.
Fig. 13. Pathlines originate from the blade tips a) original tip clearance, b) reduced
tip clearance, SH entry.
Fig. 14. Change in the source maps due to tip clearance reduction, SH entry geometry, n ¼ 1400 RPM, reverse clockwise rotation, +: increased source strength, : decreased
source strength, o: no change in source strength.
10
Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488
the SH entry, the low axial velocity region upstream interacts with
the blades, which results in considerable TLF development, as it is
shown in Fig. 11. In Fig. 11 the pathlines for all entry geometries at
the R = 0.95 cylindrical surface for n = 1400 RPM are depicted.The
path lines initiated from the blade tips were calculated from the
CFD simulations. White arrows correspond to the rotational direc-
tion, black arrows correspond to the axial direction. LE and TE rep-
resent the leading and trailing edges, respectively. In the case of
the SH entry, the TLF originating from the tip leading edge of the
preceding blade impinges on the pressure side of the following
blade. However, the TLF originating from the trailing edge of the
preceding blade (red arrow in Fig. 11) passes through the tip clear-
ance (double leakage flow – DLF, red circle in Fig. 11) and mixes
into the TLV of the leading edge leakage flow of the represented
blade. For the BM10 entry, the leakage flow impinges on the repre-
sented blade closer to the trailing edge, also, the DLF is consider-
ably reduced. In the cases of BM33 and BM50, the TLV
originating from the preceding blade exits the blade passage with-
out impinging on the represented blade, furthermore, the DLF is
terminated.
Based on the CFD simulations, the source map peaks near the
tip leading edge are produced by the following fluid mechanic phe-
nomena: I. the rolled-up leakage flow originating near the leading
edge impinges on the following blade, II. double-leakage flow. The
secondary source peaks developed near the trailing edge can be
linked to the locally developed leakage flow.
3.3. Combined evaluation of the acoustic and aerodynamic results
In this section, the previously presented acoustic results are
associated with the observed aerodynamic phenomena. In the case
of the SH entry, a peripheral, low axial velocity stagnation zone
develops upstream of the blade passage. Due to the stagnation
region, the TLF originating near the blade leading edge impinges
on the trailing blade, also, the TLF originating near the trailing edge
of the blade develops DLF as it passes through the tip clearance of
the trailing blade before exiting the blade passage. The stagnation
zone could be mitigated with the application of the small radius
BM10 entry, whilst, the stagnation region was completely termi-
nated in the case of larger radii BM33 and BM50 bellmouth entries,
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

Fig. 15. Change in the source maps due to tip clearance reduction, BM10 entry geometry, n ¼ 1400 RPM, reverse clockwise rotation, +: increased source strength, :
decreased source strength, o: no change in source strength.

Fig. 16. Change in the source maps due to tip clearance reduction, BM33 entry geometry, n ¼ 1400 RPM, reverse clockwise rotation, +: increased source strength, :
decreased source strength, o: no change in source strength.

Fig. 17. Change in the source maps due to tip clearance reduction, BM50 entry geometry, n ¼ 1400 RPM, reverse clockwise rotation, +: increased source strength, :
decreased source strength, o: no change in source strength.

11
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai
Fig. 18. Noise source strength distribution along the R ¼ 0:95 radius, reduced
clearance, n ¼ 1400 RPM; f m id ¼ 4000 Hz.
furthermore, the TLF exits the blade passage before impinging on
the trailing blade.
In addition, the dominant source peaks are located at the tip
leading edges with the SH entry geometry for the
f mid ¼ 4—6:3 kHz one-third octave nominal frequency, secondary
peaks can be found near the tip trailing edges. The tip leading edge
source peaks were reduced with the application of the BM10 entry,
whereas, they disappeared for the greater radii BM33 and BM50
entries. The decrease in sound strength level caused by the intro-
duction of the bellmouth entries was verified by hand-held sound
level meter measurements as well.
Based on the acoustic measurement in accordance with the
simulation results, the noise reduction capability of the bellmouth
entry can be explained by the termination of the peripheral stagna-
tion zone near the duct wall. This results in the elimination of the
12
Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488
Fig. 19. Noise source strength distribution along the R ¼ 0:95 radius, reduced
clearance, n ¼ 1400 RPM; f m id ¼ 5000 Hz.
dominant sound sources: the impingement of the TLF on the pres-
sure surface of the trailing blade and DLF. Also, the remaining
source peak near the tip trailing edge is caused by the single-
leakage flow.
3.4. Source ambiguity
The source ambiguity proposed in Section 2 was resolved with
the method described in [25]. The validity of the method for resolv-
ing the ambiguity is realized with CFD simulation. Fig. 12 shows
the dimensionless axial velocity distribution on the R = 0.95 cylin-
der mantle surface with SH entry, at n = 1400 RPM rotational speed
for the original and the 70% reduced blade TC. The decrease of the
stagnation zone can be observed for the reduced clearance, which,
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488

in accordance with the path lines in Fig. 13, results in reduced TLF.
Furthermore, the developed TLF exits the blade passage without
impinging on the pressure surface of the trailing blade. Therefore,
the reduction of tip clearance restrains leakage flow and conse-
quently mitigates the sound sources linked to the leakage flow.
The acoustic measurements were carried out for the reduced TC
as well for all entry geometries on all rotational speeds. The result-
ing source maps were compared to the source maps measured
with the original tip clearance for the previously examined fre-
quency bands. Figs. 14–17 show the comparison of the source
maps for n = 1400 RPM, the source strength scales indicated by
the original configuration apply for both cases. The blade with
the reduced tip clearance is always the most right blade of the
fan, and it is indicated by black arrow.Three source peaks were
investigated in the source maps, which are labeled as follows in
the Figures: 1) the first source peak trailing the reduced TC blade,
2) the second source peak trailing the reduced TC blade, 3) the
source peak preceding the reduced TC blade. Reduced peak source
strength was indicated by ‘‘”, no change was illustrated with an
empty circle, increased source strength corresponds to ‘‘+”. The
sound source strengths along the R ¼ 0:95 radius for the investi-
gated third-octave bands can be seen in Figs. 18–20. The resulting
changes induced by the reduced TC are included in Table 5 for all
rotational speeds. Reduced peak source strength was indicated
by 1, no change was illustrated with 0, increased source strength
corresponds to 1 and ‘‘” sign marks the cases, where the results
could not be interpreted.
In summary, by reducing the tip clearance on one of the fan
blades, the following changes were observed in the source maps:

1) In the case of the SH entry, the first source peak following the

2) The second source peak following the reduced tip clearance
Fig. 20. Noise source strength distribution along the R ¼ 0:95 radius, reduced
clearance, n ¼ 1400 RPM; f m id ¼ 6300 Hz.
reduced clearance blade was decreased significantly, for the
bellmouth entries, the change is not considerable. Based on
the previously presented CFD results, this is due to the intensive
tip leakage flow developed for the SH entry geometry, which
promotes double-leakage flow, also, some of the flow impinges
on the trailing blade. By reducing the tip clearance, the leakage
flow exits the blade passage without impinging on the trailing
blade and the double-leakage flow is eliminated, therefore low-
ering the source peak strength. For the bellmouth entries, where
the dominant source peak is associated with the trailing edge
leakage flow, the reduced tip clearance did not affect the first
source peak.
blade decreased in the case of the SH entry, whilst the change
was insignificant for the bellmouth entries. Based on the CFD
results, the decrease can be explained by the highly reduced
double-leakage flow for the SH entry. For the BM10 entry, the
double-leakage flow was mitigated, and it was prevented in

Table 5
Changes in the source maps due to tip clearance reduction. 1: reduced peak source strength, 0: no change in peak source strength, 1: increased peak source strength, –: results
could not be interpreted.

950 [RPM] 1175 [RPM] 1400 [RPM]

peak label 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
SH 4000 [Hz] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
5000 [Hz] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
6300 [Hz] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
BM10 4000 [Hz] 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
5000 [Hz] – – – 1 0 1 0 0 1
6300 [Hz] – – – – – – 0 0 1
BM33 4000 [Hz] 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
5000 [Hz] 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1
6300 [Hz] – – – – – – 1 0 1
BM50 4000 [Hz] 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
5000 [Hz] 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0
6300 [Hz] – – – – – – – – –

13
Tamás Benedek, János Vad and Bálint Lendvai
the case of the larger radii BM33 and BM50 entry geometries.

3) The source peak strength preceding the reduced tip clearance
increased in all cases, possibly due to the additional vibration of
the cardboard strip. Furthermore, in the case of the SH entry,
the tip leakage flow from the preceding blade interacts with
the blade pressure side on a larger surface.
4. Conclusion
In the present paper, the noise reduction effect of bellmouth
entries with various radii is studied in the case of a free inlet – free
exhaust axial flow fan with a special focus on the blade tip related
noise sources. In the investigations four different inlet geometries
were used: a short-tapered and three bellmouth entries with
radius of 10, 33, and 50 percent of the blade tip radius. The size
of the largest investigated bellmouth entry was in accordance with
the standard [19]. For the acoustic measurements, a sound pres-
sure level meter and a phased array microphone were used. The
acoustic measurement data were processed with the ROSI beam-
forming algorithm, by the means of which noise source maps in
a co-rotating reference frame can be created. In the aerodynamic
investigations inlet velocity profile measurements and CFD simula-
tion was involved. The results showed that compared to the short-
tapered entry, the overall sound pressure level is reduced by
2:5—3 dB when the smallest bellmouth geometry was used and
reduced by 5—6 dB in case of the two larger bellmouth entries.
The noise source maps showed that the noise is dominated by
the tip leakage flow in the third octave bands of
f mid ¼ 4—6:3 kHz. In the case of the short-tapered inlet geometry
two strong noise sources were found in the tip region: a more
dominant one near the leading edge, and a less dominant one near
the trailing edge. By the application of the smallest bellmouth
geometry, the strength of the noise source near the leading edge
was reduced and when the two largest bellmouth entries were
used, this noise source was eliminated. The noise-reducing mech-
anism of the bellmouth geometries was confirmed by the aerody-
namic investigations and the method described in [25]. Based on
the results the following conclusions can be made:

In the case of the short tapered-entry an extended stagnation
zone appears in the vicinity of the leading edge of the blade
tip. This stagnation zone is moderated in the case of the small-
est bellmouth entry and eliminated in the case of the two
largest.

By the reduction and elimination of the stagnation zone, the
axial velocity of the forming tip leakage vortex is increased
and its intensity decreased, therefore it leaves the blade passage
instead of the impingement on the adjacent blade.

By the reduction and elimination of the stagnation zone, the
double-leakage flow was reduced and eliminated as well, which
significantly affected the emitted noise.

The noise source near the blade tip trailing edge is related to the
local leakage flow.

According to this the noise reduction of the bellmouth entries
can be explained by the reduction of the stagnation zone near
the tip leading edge, by means of which the dominant noise
sources are reduced or eliminated: a) the impinging leakage
flow on the adjacent blade, and b) the double leakage flow.

From a practical point of view, an important result is that the
50% bellmouth entry (as per suggested by the standard [19])
represents a noise-reducing solution with a safety reserve, in
the view that even a 33% bellmouth entry can achieve practi-
cally the same noise reduction.
14
Applied Acoustics 187 (2022) 108488
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Tamás Benedek: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Investigation, Resources, Visualization, Writing – original draft,
Writing – review & editing, Project administration. János Vad:
Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing – review & editing,
Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Bálint
Lendvai: Investigation, Visualization, Writing – original draft,
Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
}zsér, for her help during
Gratitude is expressed to Ms. Eszter To
the measurements, to Ms. Anna Csenge Tóth and Mr. Bendegúz
} Bak for their help in the preparation of the CFD meshes.
Dezso
This work has been supported by the Hungarian National
Research, Development and Innovation Fund under contract NKFI
K 129023.
The research reported in this paper and carried out at BME has
been supported by the NRDI Fund (TKP2020 IES, Grant No. BME-IE-
WAT) based on the charter of bolster issued by the NRDI Office
under the auspices of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology.
The research reported in this paper and carried out at BME has
been supported by the NRDI Fund (TKP2020 NC, Grant No. BME-
NCS) based on the charter of bolster issued by the NRDI Office
under the auspices of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology.
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