Abstract
This study focuses on the design and optimization of an electronics enclosure intended for use in a centrifugal fan being driven by an electric motor for the residential heating, ventilating, and air conditioning(HVAC) market. Typically in these systems the motor is mounted directly in the airstream of the centrifugal fan, but in this case the Regal Beloit’s axial motor technology allows for the minimization of this obstruction to the airflow. In the system analyzed the axial motor is mounted in the center of the centrifugal fan and the electronics used to drive the system is enclosed and mounted to the axial motor. This enclosure has been optimized for system airflow efficiency and thermal management of the electronics. A sensitivity analysis was also performed to understand the optimized design’s performance under various application environments. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used as a test platform and tool for optimization. The CFD analysis was driven by goal optimization software to explore the design space and lead to an optimized design for overall efficiency. Results were validated to test data and test visualization methods. This presentation will cover the design requirements and details of the application, the optimization and CFD techniques used, and the criteria used for CFD model validation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arora, J.S.: Introduction to Optimum Design, 3rd edn. Elsevier[AQ3] (2011)
Batarseh, I.: Power Electronic Circuits. Wiley (2004)
Chen, N.: Aerothermodynamics of Turbomachinery Analysis and Design. Wiley (2010)
Davidson, P.A.: Turbulence: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers[AQ4] (2004)
Jeffus, L.: Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 4th edn. Pearson (2004)
Pletcher, R.H., Tannehillm, J.C., Anderson, D.A.: Computational Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, 3rd edn. CRC Press (2013)
White, F.M.: Viscous Fluid Flow, 3rd edn. McGraw-Hill (2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cocks, R., Westhoff, J. (2015). A CFD Optimization of Airflow Efficiency for an Electric Motor Driven Centrifugal Fan System for Residential HVAC Applications. In: Cojocaru, M., Kotsireas, I., Makarov, R., Melnik, R., Shodiev, H. (eds) Interdisciplinary Topics in Applied Mathematics, Modeling and Computational Science. Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, vol 117. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12307-3_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12307-3_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12306-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12307-3
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)