789

Theoretical and experimental studies on the noise

control of centrifugal fans combining absorbing liner
and inclined tongue
Y Gu1, D Qi1, Y Mao1*, and X Wang2
1
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China
2
Shenyang Blower Works Group Co. Ltd, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

The manuscript was received on 10 January 2011 and was accepted after revision for publication on 3 June 2011.

DOI: 10.1177/0957650911414804

Abstract: In previous work, it has been validated that the inclined tongue has a significant effect
on controlling the tonal noise of centrifugal fans. In order to reduce the broadband noise of
centrifugal fans, theoretical and experimental research studies have been implemented to
study the effect of the sound-absorption volute on noise propagation. First, a mathematical–
physical model of the sound-absorption volute is established to explore the influence of the
sound-absorption coefficient of the liner, which is dependent on the liner thickness, cavity
depth, etc. Then, an experimental study is carried out to measure the coupling effect
between the absorbing liner and the inclined tongue and its potential for the noise control of
centrifugal fans. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical result, and validate the
mathematical–physical model, proving it a practical model for further optimization of the sound-
absorption volute. In addition, the results indicate that considerable noise reduction can be
achieved by combining both the posed absorbing liner and modified inclined tongue.

Keywords: noise reduction, sound-absorption volute, broadband noise, centrifugal fan, exper-
imental study

1 INTRODUCTION
Centrifugal fans have been used for a wide range of
industrial purposes; however, the noise generated by
these machines has become a serious problem. Thus,
it is becoming increasingly important to provide an
effective level of noise attenuation. Many domestic
and international researchers have concentrated on
the noise generation and propagation mechanism of
centrifugal fans. For example, Velarde-Suárez et al.
[1–3], Younsi et al. [4], and Lin and Huang [5] studied
the unsteady flow and the aerodynamic tonal noise of
forward-curved multi-blade centrifugal fans. Sasaki
et al. [6] investigated the influence of Karman vortex
*Corresponding author: Department of Fluid Machinery and
Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an
Jiaotong University, No.28, Xianning West Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi,
710049, People’s Republic of China.
email: maoyijun@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
street on the broadband noise generated from a
forward-curved multi-blade fan, and Feshe and
Neise [7] found that the low-frequency noise was
generated by the classical flow separation regions
located on the shroud and the blade suction sides of
the impeller. Liu et al. [8, 9] and Mao et al. [10, 11]
have also conducted some research studies on the
calculation of centrifugal fan noise to identify the
predominant noise source and the noise propagation
feature. From these studies, it can be concluded that
the centrifugal fan noise is a superposition of both
tonal noise and broadband noise, within which the
tonal noise takes up a larger percent of the whole due
to its higher peak value at blade-passing frequency
and its harmonics.
As concerns the tonal noise of centrifugal fans,
research studies have indicated that the unsteady
interaction between the impeller outlet flow and the
volute was the most important factor of tonal noise.

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790 Y Gu, D Qi, Y Mao, and X Wang

Therefore, decreasing the wake impact has become
the main concern in controlling the tonal noise with
respect to aeroacoustics. Neise [12] has summarized
some early methods on the tonal noise control, which
were mainly based on the modification of the volute
tongue to minimize the pressure fluctuations near the
volute, such as increasing the volute-tongue clear-
ance [13–15], increasing the radius of curvature of
the volute tongue [16], inclining the volute tongue
[17, 18], etc. Also recently, authors have made exper-
imental and numerical studies on the control of the
tonal noise of centrifugal fans using the orthogonal
design method to optimize the geometry of the volute
tongue [19, 20]. The experimental study showed that
an optimal shape of the volute tongue could not only
eliminate the peak value of the tonal noise, but also
ensure no or little depress in the aerodynamic perfor-
mance of centrifugal fans. However, the experimental
result also indicated that a much more formidable
challenge in further work was the control of the
broadband noise.
As regards the broadband noise of centrifugal fans,
it is usually considered to be related with the non-
uniform inlet flow, vortex flow with varied temporal–
spatial structures, flow boundary layer instability,
separation, etc. [7, 8, 21–23]. The above noise genera-
tion mechanism is so complicated, which induces the
non-periodic fluctuation and the widely distributed
locations of the broadband noise sources. Therefore,
the reduction of the broadband noise with respect
to aeroacoustics is not so prospective. Usually, the
absorbing material is widely used in noise control
engineering due to its good performance of reducing
broadband noise [24]. Recently, some researchers
have focused their research interest on it to reduce
the aerodynamic noise radiated from fans, compres-
sors, and airplanes [25–27]. Especially, the patent of
Challis [28] in 1981 presented an invention of appara-
tus for attenuating noise emitted from an inlet port to a
centrifugal fan. The provided Helmholtz cavities had
respective different centres to their absorption bands,
whereby a wide range of broadband noise could
be absorbed. In addition, other sound-attenuating
means such as the conventional absorbent materials
were particularly effective on higher frequency noise.
In the light of the above developments, an apparatus
using the absorbing material for reducing the broad-
band noise of an industrial centrifugal fan has been
designed in this study. The aerodynamic performance
and the noise reduction effect of the fan installed with
the sound-absorption volute have been studied theo-
retically and experimentally. The sound-absorption
volute is a multilayer panel which is composed of
the perforated plates, absorbing material, and the
cavity. Initially, a mathematical–physical model is
established to analyse the absorbing performance of
the multilayer panel. Subsequently, an experimental
investigation is performed to explore the influence
of the liner thickness and the cavity depth on the
sound-absorption coefficient of the liner and verify
the mathematical–physical model. Furthermore, an
experiment studying the coupling effect of the absorb-
ing liner and the inclined tongue is also conducted.
The ultimate objective of this investigation is to
develop an integrated technique to reduce both the
tonal and the broadband noises of the centrifugal
fan. As the first step, this study hopes to establish a
practical model of the sound-absorption volute for
further optimization of the modification and investi-
gate the coupling effect of the two measures.
2 MATHEMATICAL–PHYSICAL MODEL FOR
SOUND-ABSORPTION VOLUTE
2.1 Configuration of the sound-absorption
volute
Figure 1 shows the sketch of the sound-absorption
volute, in which the absorbing liner is composed of
a perforated volute plate, porous material, a micro-
perforated plate, and a cavity. The volute plates of the
sound-absorption volute are 3-mm thick perforated
armour plates with a porosity of about 45 per cent,
whose aperture diameter is 5 mm, while the original
volute plates are conventional armour plates. The
porous material is fixed with the help of flexible thin
micro-perforated plates and thus engenders a certain
cavity to the outer clapboard. The micro-perforated
plate is 1 mm thick with the porosity of about 0.8 per
cent, and the aperture diameter is 0.8 mm.
The simplified structure of the sound-absorption
volute is shown in Fig. 2. The coordinate origin lies
on the interface between the perforated volute plate
and the flow, and the positive x-axis direction is out-
wards and perpendicular to the surface. The liner
thickness and the cavity depth are H1 and H2, respec-
tively, and tp1 and tp2 stand for the thickness of the
Fig. 1 Sketch of sound-absorption volute

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 Noise control of centrifugal fans 791

the absorbing material per unit thickness with the

following definition [29]
1
p
R1 ¼  ð4Þ
v
x
where
p represents the pressure difference across
the absorbing material of
x thickness, and v the air
speed through the material. For some fibrous sound-
absorbing materials, R1 can be taken as a function of
the bulk density 1

Fig. 2 Simplified structure of sound-absorption volute R1 ¼ Að1 ÞB ð5Þ

as to superfine wool, the two constants A and B are
micro-perforated and the perforated volute plates. The 0.122 and 1.564 each.
subscripts p, a, and c represent the perforated plate, The surface acoustic impedance Za of the porous
the porous material, and the cavity, respectively, and material with the thickness ta can be expressed as [29]
Z0 –Z4 the surface impedance on each layer of the
configuration. Z 0 coshðka ta Þ þ Za0 sinhðka ta Þ
Za ¼ Za0 ð6Þ
Z 0 sinhðka ta Þ þ Za0 coshðka ta Þ
2.2 Acoustic characteristics of media materials where Z 0 is the acoustic impedance on the back of the
material. When the material is backed with a rigid
2.2.1 Perforated plates wall, the surface acoustic impedance of the absorbing
material is
The acoustic impedance of the perforated plate in the
absorbing liner is given as [29] Za ¼ Za0 cothðka ta Þ ð7Þ
8 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  hqffiffiffiffi  i
>
< Zp ¼ "0 8! 1 þ 2a tp
þ j !" 0 8
1 þ
tp
þ t þ 
p
! 2a 2.2.3 Airspaces
>  ¼ 0:85ð2a Þ  p ðffiffi"ffi Þ p ffiffiffiffi
ffi
:
ð"Þ ¼ 1  1:47 " þ 0:47 "3 ð1Þ The complex propagation constant kc and the char-
acteristic impedance Zc0 of the airspace can be found
where 0 is the air density,  the kinematic viscosity
as [29]
coefficient of air ( ¼ 1:5  105 m2 =s at normal tem-
perature), ! the angular frequency of the sound wave, kc ¼ ik0 ð8Þ
 the viscous boundary layer thickness, and tp , a, and " Zc0 ¼ 0 c0 ð9Þ
the thickness, hole radius, and porosity, respectively.
in which k0 ¼ !=c0 is the propagation constant in air.
2.2.2 Porous materials Similarly, when the airspace is backed with a rigid
wall, the surface impedance Zc of the cavity with the
The complex propagation constant ka and the charac- thickness tc is
teristic impedance Za0 of the homogeneous and isotro-
pic porous material can be expressed as [30]
Zc ¼ 0 c0 cothðkc tc Þ ¼ 0 c0 cothðik0 tc Þ
"   # ð10Þ
! 0 f 0:595 ¼ i0 c0 cotðk0 tc Þ
ka ¼ 0:189
c0 R1
"   #
! 0 f 0:7
þj 1 þ 0:0978 ð2Þ 2.3 Mathematical–physical model of the
c0 R1
absorbing configuration
"   #
0 f 0:754
Za0 ¼ 0 c0 1 þ 0:0571 Figure 3 shows the equivalent electrical circuit of the
R1
" # absorbing configuration [31–33]. The incident sound
 
0 f 0:732 wave is assumed to be a plane one. Since the indus-
 j0 c0 0:0891 ð3Þ trial centrifugal fan is usually made by cast iron, its
R1
wall can be seen as rigid that the characteristic acous-
in which c0 is the sound speed in air and f the fre- tic impedance in Fig. 2 is Z0 ¼ 1; then, the acoustic
quency of the sound wave. R1 is the flow resistance of impedance on the surface of the cavity is [29]

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792 Y Gu, D Qi, Y Mao, and X Wang

3 EXPERIMENTAL INSTALLATION

3.1 Experimental device

The performance and noise characteristics of the fan

installed with both original and sound-absorption
volutes are measured according to international stan-
dard ISO5801-1997: industrial fan-performance testing
using standardized airways [34], and Chinese
Standard GB/T2888-91: noise measurement for fans,
blowers compressors, and roots blowers [35]. All the
Fig. 3 The equivalent electrical circuit of the absorb-
ing configuration experiments in this research are completed in the
hemi-anechoic chamber in Xi’an Jiaotong University.
The hemi-anechoic chamber has a size of 6.1 m long,
width 2.8 m, and height 3.6 m. All the inside walls are
installed with mineral wool wedges, and the ground is
paved with sound-absorbing blanket, ensuring a good
sound-absorption effect at the frequency above
150 Hz. The general sketch of the test installation is
shown in Fig. 4, and Fig. 5 presents the photographs
of all the facilities in the hemi-anechoic chamber.
The static pressures at sections A and B are
measured with a YJB-150 compensate-type micro-
pressure meter and a U-tube, respectively. Two
G26-W undirectional AC power meters are used to
Fig. 4 Sketch of the test installation measure the electric power input into the motor.
A SIMENS inverter controls the rotational speed of
Z1 ¼ 0 c0 cothðik0 H2 Þ ð11Þ the motor, which is measured by a SZG-441 hand-
held digital tachometer. In addition, to make a
record of the atmospheric temperature, humidity,
Thus, the acoustic impedance on the surface of the and pressure, a WSB-A1 thermometer–hygrometer
micro-perforated plate is [31] and a DYM3 aneroid barometer are applied.
Z2 ¼ Z1 þ Zp1 ð12Þ As to the noise measurement, a PCB377A02 acoustic
pressure sensor is fixed 1 m away from the fan exit,
in which Zp1 stands for the characteristic impedance which can be seen in Fig. 4. Before the experiment, it
of the micro-perforated plate. The acoustic impedance is calibrated with a Larson Davis Model CAL200 sound
on the surface of the absorbing material is level calibrator, which provides a standard sound
source at the frequency of 1000 Hz with the sound pres-
Z2 coshðka H1 Þ þ Za0 sinhðka H1 Þ
Z3 ¼ Za0 ð13Þ sure level (SPL) of 114 dB. The sound signal is amplified
Z2 sinhðka H1 Þ þ Za0 coshðka H1 Þ
by a 426D01 preamplifier and through the cables, it is
Then, the final acoustic impedance on the surface connected to the DIFA data acquisition front and then
of the perforated volute plate is analysed by the LMS Test.Lab Spectral Acquisition.
The linear SPL is measured by 1/24 octave, and then
Z4 ¼ Z3 þ Zp2 ð14Þ transformed into A-weighted SPL. More details on the
experimental facility and measurement uncertainty of
where Zp2 is the characteristic impedance of the per-
the instruments are reported by Qi et al. [19].
forated volute plate. Therefore, the sound-absorption
coefficient can be obtained by
3.2 Tested centrifugal fans
 
Z4  0 c0 2
 ¼ 1    ð15Þ 3.2.1 Original centrifugal fan
Z4 þ 0 c0 
Given the assumption that 0 ¼ 1:21 kg=m3 and An industrial centrifugal fan is chosen as the original
c0 ¼ 344 m=s, the sound-absorption coefficient for fan for the experiment. The difference between the
different liner thicknesses and cavity depths could original fan and modified fans lies in the volute
be obtained. plate and the volute tongue. The impeller is a

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 Noise control of centrifugal fans 793

Fig. 5 Photograph of the facilities: (a) experimental test and (b) sound-absorption volute

Table 1 Dimensions of original fan

Vaneless diffuser outlet diameter, D3 (mm) 460
Impeller blade outlet diameter, D2 (mm) 400
Impeller blade inlet diameter, D1 (mm) 156
Impeller inlet diameter, D0 (mm) 128
Impeller inlet width, b1 (mm) 70
Impeller outlet width, b2 (mm) 36
Impeller blade number, Z 12
Impeller blade thickness, h (mm) 2.5
Blade inlet angle, 1A (degrees) 38
Blade outlet angle, 2A (degrees) 126
Volute width, B (mm) 64
Volute tongue radius, R1 (mm) 10
Impeller blade-tongue clearance, t (mm) 40

blade-tongue clearance. In this study, the two radii

Fig. 6 Sketch of original centrifugal fan
shrouded impeller with 12 forward-curved blades. The
conveying gas rotates with the impeller and then goes
through a vaneless diffuser. The volute is spiral with a
rectangular section, composed of four 1/4 circular arcs
with different radii. The sketch of the original fan is
shown in Fig. 6 and its main dimensions are listed in
Table 1.
3.2.2 Modified fans
are R1 ¼ 10 mm and R2 ¼ 43 mm. Also, the impeller
blade-tongue clearance is increased from the original
40 mm to 58.9 mm and the inclined angle is 32.3 . The
intention of the composition is to test their coupling
effect and thus verify whether their separate noise
reduction effect is additive.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Effect of sound-absorption volute
on fan performance

Two different types of modified centrifugal fans are
tested. The first type of modification is the sound-
absorption volute, the difference of which with the
original volute lies in the structure of the volute plate
in their interior flow path, as shown in Figs 1 and 5(b).
Another type of modification is the superposition of
absorbing liner and the inclined tongue. Reasonable
impeller blade-tongue clearance and inclination of the
volute tongue have been proved to entail significant
tonal noise reduction of centrifugal fans. Figure 7
presents the sketch of the inclined tongue in the
centrifugal fan, in which R1 and R2 stand for the radii
of the inclined tongue on the hub and shroud side,
respectively;  the inclined angle; and t the impeller
Figures 8 and 9 show the total pressure and efficiency
of the original fan and three modified fans against
volume flowrate at the rotating speeds of 2900 and
1450 r/min, respectively. The results indicate that
the total pressure and efficiency of modified fans
have decreased in the whole operating range.
Moreover, both increasing the volume flowrate and
raising the rotating speed would enlarge the drop
amplitude of the fan performance. The decrease in
the fan performance can be attributed to the higher
skin-friction drag of the perforated plates which usu-
ally increases with the gas flow velocity. Based on the
above results, an optimal structure of the perforated
plates should be expected to reduce the flow loss

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794 Y Gu, D Qi, Y Mao, and X Wang

when the gas flows over it. The experimental results
also show that not only the dimensions of the perfo-
rated plates, but also the change in the liner thickness
and the cavity depth may have some influence on the
aerodynamic performance of the modified fans with
sound-absorption volute.
Fig. 7 Sketch of inclined volute tongue
4.2 Effect of sound-absorption volute
on fan noise
Both the liner thickness and the cavity depth may
have certain effect on the sound-absorption coeffi-
cient, and influence the noise reduction effect of the
sound-absorption volute. Based on the mathemati-
cal–physical model of the sound-absorption volute,
Figs 10 and 11 show the calculated sound-absorption
coefficient against frequency for different liner thick-
nesses H1 and cavity depths H2, respectively.
From Fig. 10, it can be seen that absorbing material
of certain thickness could enable a fine absorbing
effect of aerodynamic noise of about 1000–8000 Hz
and in both lower and higher frequency ranges, the
coefficient is lower. With the increase of the liner
thickness, the frequency range with higher coefficient
values can be widened towards the direction of low
frequency to 700–8000 Hz and the minimum coeffi-
cient increases from 0.016 to 0.36, which indicates

Fig. 8 Effect of the modification of sound-absorption volute on fan performance (n ¼ 290 0 r/min)
(a) total pressure and (b) efficiency

Fig. 9 Effect of the modification of sound-absorption volute on fan performance (n ¼ 1450 r/min)
(a) total pressure and (b) efficiency

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 Noise control of centrifugal fans
Fig. 10 Sound-absorption coefficient for different
liner thicknesses
Fig. 11 Sound-absorption coefficient for different
cavity depths
that the rise of the liner thickness can enhance the
sound-absorption effect in lower frequency range.
Also, as shown in Fig. 11, when the cavity depth
rises from 0 to 75 mm, no significant change occurs
in high-frequency range, while in low-frequency
range, a peak value in the absorption coefficient
occurs and gradually moves towards the direction of
lower frequency. Thus, it can be indicated that a
reasonable cavity depth could strengthen the control
of the aerodynamic noise at low frequencies.
To make a comparison with the theoretical result of
this model, the A-weighted SPL spectra of the original
fan and three modified fans of different liner thick-
nesses have been measured at the fan exit. Figure 12
shows their A-weighted SPL spectra for three volume
flowrates: large volume flowrate (Q1 ¼ 1.5QBEP), best
efficiency point (QBEP ¼ 20.6 m3/min), and small
volume rate (Q2 ¼ 0.5QBEP), as well as the tonal noise
reduction. It can be seen from the curves that the noise
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795
level of the original fan is dominated by tonal noise
and the peaks at the fundamental frequency of
580 Hz and its second harmonic appear clearly in
these three spectra. The three modified fans achieve
a significant noise reduction effect over the whole fre-
quency band under the three volume flowrates. The
noise level reduced in moderate-frequency band of
about 1000–8000 Hz is transparently more significant
than that achieved in low and high frequencies, and in
the theoretical analysis, the coefficient in moderate
frequency band is also higher than that in other fre-
quency bands. Moreover, as the liner thickness H1
increases, the noise reduction achieved in low-fre-
quency band also increases, while in high-frequency
band, the noise reduction remains almost the same,
which also accords well with the change of the calcu-
lated sound-absorption coefficient.
Figure 13 presents the A-weighted SPL spectra of the
original fan and three modified fans of different cav-
ity depths measured at the fan exit for three volume
flowrates Q1, QBEP, and Q2, and also a subplot of tonal
noise reduction. It can be seen that the increase in the
cavity depth gives rise to a better noise reduction
effect in low-frequency band, while no significant
change occurs in high-frequency band, which is also
consistent with the theoretical result that the coeffi-
cient in low-frequency band rises with H2 and in high-
frequency band, the coefficient keeps almost constant.
However, when H2 becomes non-zero, the peak values
of the sound-absorption coefficient in low frequencies
do not correspond to a significant noise reduction
amount in the spectra in Fig. 13. This may be due to
the non-linear relationship between the noise reduc-
tion amount
L and the sound-absorption coefficient
 because of the complicated configuration of the
volute as well as the complex incident wave inside
the volute rather than the plane wave that
L is not
simply in direct proportion to .
The subplots of tonal noise reduction presented in
Figs 12(d) and 13(d) show that the predominant tonal
noise of the centrifugal fan can be reduced in low-
volume flowrate area. However, as the volume flow-
rate increases, the tonal noise does not continue to
drop greatly, especially in large-volume flowrate
area, the tonal noise becomes even higher than the
original one. Also, the increase of the liner thickness
and the cavity depth does not contribute to significant
improvement of the tonal noise reduction amount.
Figure 14 demonstrates the overall A-weighted SPL
against volume flowrate at the fan exit for different
liner thicknesses at the rotating speeds of 2900
and 1450 r/min, when the cavity depth H2 remains
the same as H2 ¼ 0. Also, Fig. 15 presents the overall
A-weighted SPL against volume flowrate at the fan exit
for different cavity depths at n ¼ 2900 r/min, when the
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796 Y Gu, D Qi, Y Mao, and X Wang
Fig. 12 A-weighted SPL spectra of original fan and three modified fans of different liner thicknesses
(a) Q1, (b) QBEP; (c) Q2, and (d) tonal noise reduction
liner thickness H1 keeps constant as H1 ¼ 25 mm.
From the curves in Figs 14(a) and 15, it can be con-
cluded that modified fans with the sound-absorption
volute achieve a significant noise reduction effect
when the centrifugal fan operates at low and moderate
flowrates, which gradually decreases with the rise of
volume flowrate. Also, the increase of the liner thick-
ness and the cavity depth results in further enhance-
ment of the amplitude of noise reduction amount.
However, compared with the experimental result in
Fig. 14(a), curves in Fig. 14(b) indicate a more consid-
erable noise reduction effect when the centrifugal fan
operates at high flowrate. The tonal noise reduction of
different modified fans at volume flowrates Q1 and
QBEP presented in Fig. 12(d) shows that when the rotat-
ing speed is 2900 r/min, in spite of the common
decline in high-frequency noise, the fundamental
noise at 580 Hz is higher than the original one. Since
the permeable boundary of the volute usually leads to
more severe interaction between the impeller outlet
flow and the volute, the regenerative noise of the
flow will be increased. As the rotating speed increases,
the flow velocity is increased, thus resulting in higher
regenerative noise. Furthermore, the frequency of the
regenerative noise is consistent with that of the fan
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tonal noise [36] that the tonal noise of the centrifugal
fan is increased highly. In addition, in large-flowrate
area, tonal noise is predominant in the aerodynamic
noise of fans [37]; therefore, its increase results in the
addition of the overall A-weighted SPL, which may be
one of the reasons for the poor noise reduction effect
at large volume flowrate. Based on the aforementioned
analysis, the flow velocity of gas has an important
effect not only on the centrifugal fan performance,
but also on the noise reduction effect as well.
4.3 Coupling effect of absorbing liner and
inclined tongue
Since the single application of some noise-reducing
measures can achieve a good noise reduction effect, it
is interesting to explore whether their superposition
could enable a more considerable effect. Here, the
modification of the absorbing liner and the inclined
tongue is combined together to investigate their cou-
pling effect on the fan performance and noise. The
dimensions of the superposed sound-absorption
volute are H1 ¼ 25 mm and H2 ¼ 0.
The aerodynamic performance of the original fan,
modified fans with the sound-absorption volute, and
 Noise control of centrifugal fans 797

Fig. 13 A-weighted SPL spectra of original fan and three modified fans of different cavity depths (a)
Q1, (b) QBEP, (c) Q2, and (d) tonal noise reduction

Fig. 14 Effect of liner thickness on the overall A-weighted SPL of modified fans with absorbing
liner: (a) n ¼ 2900 r/min and (b) n ¼ 1450 r/min

the inclined tongue each and their superposition
under different rotating speeds are shown in Figs 16
and 17, respectively. The superposition of the inclined
tongue does not cause much difference in the perfor-
mance of the modified fan with absorbing liner only,
which may be attributed to that the application of the
inclined tongue affects little on the performance of
fans [38].
Figure 18 shows the overall A-weighted SPL of the
above four fans against volume flowrate at the fan
exit for the two rotating speeds. The results indicate
that a more significant noise reduction amount can

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798 Y Gu, D Qi, Y Mao, and X Wang

be achieved by the superposition; yet, the noise

reduction amount is not simply the sum of those
achieved by the two single modifications.
The A-weighted SPL spectra of the four fans rotating
at 2900 r/min for three volume flowrates Q1, QBEP, and
Q2 are presented in Fig. 19, as well as their tonal noise
reduction. As can be seen in the figures, the effect of
the inclined tongue on reducing the tonal noise of
fans is significant while the sound-absorption volute
contributes greatly to reduce the moderate- and high-
frequency noise and their superposition enables a
more considerable noise reduction effect over the
whole operating range. Since the tonal noise has
been decreased by employing the inclined tongue,
which contributes less to the overall A-weighted SPL
Fig. 15 Effect of cavity depth on the overall A-
at the fan exit; therefore, the effect of the sound-
weighted SPL of modified fans with absorbing
liner (n ¼ 2900 r/min) absorption volute on reducing the broadband noise
is transparent. This may be one reason why the
single application of the sound-absorption volute
cannot achieve a superior noise reduction effect in
large volume flowrate area, while its combination
with the inclined tongue enables more significant
noise reduction than that accomplished by the single
use of the inclined tongue.

5 CONCLUSIONS

In this article, absorbing material has been applied in

the design of a sound-absorption volute for reducing
the broadband noise of a centrifugal fan.
Considerable tests have been carried out to study the
aerodynamic performance and the noise reduction
effect of the modified fan as well as its coupling
Fig. 16 Performance of the original fan and three effect with the inclined tongue. In addition, a mathe-
modified fans (n ¼ 2900 r/min) matical–physical model of the sound-absorption
volute has been established and explored through a
qualitative comparison with the experimental results.
The modifications of the sound-absorption volute
are proved to entail some loss of aerodynamic perfor-
mance of centrifugal fans, which may be attributed to
the flow loss caused by the perforation of the volute
plates. The experimental results indicate that the
change of the liner thickness and the cavity depth
may affect the fan performance as well. Also, they all
show a transparent noise reduction effect on the
broadband noise of centrifugal fans, especially on
the noise in moderate-frequency band under the con-
dition of low and moderate volume flowrates and
low rotating speed. In addition, proper increase of
the liner thickness and the cavity depth can enhance
the noise reduction effect. The above analysis is quite
consistent with the theoretical result calculated from
Fig. 17 Performance of the original fan and three the mathematical–physical model; thus, proving it a
modified fans (n ¼ 1450 r/min) practical model for qualitative analysis.

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 Noise control of centrifugal fans 799

Fig. 18 Overall A-weighted SPL of four different fans (a) n ¼ 2900 r/min; (b) n ¼ 1450 r/min

Fig. 19 A-weighted SPL spectra of original fan and three modified fans at n ¼ 2900 r/min (a) Q1, (b)
QBEP, (c) Q2, and (d) tonal noise reduction

The superposition of the inclined tongue on the
modification of the sound-absorption volute does
not cause much variation in the performance com-
pared with the ones with absorbing liner only for the
reason that the application of an optimal inclined
tongue affects little on the fan performance. Still,
the noise reduction effect is enhanced significantly
in the whole operation range for the contribution of
the inclined tongue on reducing the tonal noise of
centrifugal fans.
The experimental study indicates that the applica-
tion of absorbing liner on the volute is favourable
for reducing the broadband noise of centrifugal fans,
well verifying the mathematical–physical model.

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800 Y Gu, D Qi, Y Mao, and X Wang
Furthermore, its superposition with the inclined
tongue, whose effect on reducing the tonal noise has
been explored enables more significant noise reduc-
tion over the whole operation range. Also, the work
on the optimization of the configuration of the
sound-absorption volute based on the theoretical
model could be a future direction.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the anony-
mous referees for their valuable comments on
improving the quality of this article.
FUNDING
This research is supported by the project of the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
50976084).
ß Authors 2011
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