Aerodynamic noise reduction of fan motor unit of cordless vacuum cleaner by optimal designing of splitter blades for impeller

: In this study, noise radiated from a high-speed fan-motor unit for a cordless vacuum cleaner is reduced by designing splitter blades on the existing impeller. First of all, in order to investigate the flow field through a fan-motor unit, especially impeller, the unsteady incompressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are numerically solved by using computational fluid dynamic technique. With predicted flow field results as input, the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) integral equation is solved to predict aerodynamic noise radiated from the impeller. The validity of the numerical methods is confirmed by comparing the predicted sound pressure spectrum with the measured one. Further analysis of the predicted flow field shows that the strong vortex is formed between the impeller blades. As the vortex induces the loss of the flow field and acts as an aerodynamic noise source, supplementary splitter blades are designed to the existing impeller to suppress the identified vortex. The length and position of splitter are selected as design factors and the effect of each design factor on aerodynamic noise is numerically analyzed by using the Taguchi method. From this results, the optimum location and length of splitter for minimum radiated noise is determined. The finally selected design shows lower noise than the existing one.