Design and evaluation of an aeroacoustic wind tunnel for measurement of axial flow fans

An anechoic wind tunnel dedicated to fan self-noise studies has been designed and constructed at the von Karman Institute The multi-chamber, mass flow driven design allows for all fan performance characteristics, aerodynamic quantities (e.g., wake turbulence measurements), and acoustic properties to be assessed in the same facility with the same conditions. The acoustic chamber performance is assessed using the optimum reference method and found to be within the ISO 3745 standards down to 150 Hz for pure tone and broadband source mechanisms. The additional influence of installation effects of an aerodynamic inlet was found to create a scattered sound field only near the source location, while still providing good anechoic results at more distant sound pressure measurement positions. It was found to have inflow properties, span-wise uniformity, and low turbulence intensity, consistent with those desired for fan self-noise studies. (C) 2011 Acoustical Society of America. [DOI: 10.1121/1.3652880]