Effects of Bionic Volute Tongue Bioinspired by Leading Edge of Owl Wing and Its Installation Angle on Performance of Multi-Blade Centrifugal Fan

Effect of the volute tongue of the multi-blade centrifugal fan on the performance of the machines is significance. The shape and installation angle of the volute tongue affect the circulating internal flow behavior of the volute as well as the energy loss around the volute tongue. In this study, the profile of the leading edge of the owl wing is applied to the volute tongue of a multi-blade centrifugal fan to improve the aerodynamic performance of the fan. The fan models with different volute tongue installation angles are numerically simulated under different flow conditions. The research results show that the proposed design is able to improve the aerodynamic performance of the fan at different flow rate conditions. In addition, an improved method for quantitatively evaluating the level of impeller-volute tongue interaction based on the unsteady simulation result is proposed and it is verified to be effective. Furthermore, the two parameters for evaluating the internal flow circulation which are influenced by the installation angle of the bionic volute tongue are analyzed, namely the recirculated flow coefficient and the reversed flow coefficient. Combined with the analysis of energy loss around the volute tongue, the mechanism of variation of the aerodynamic performance of the multi-blade centrifugal fan with different volute tongue installation angles is explained.