If fan aerodynamic and acoustic performance is important to your project, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll be happy to discuss your concerns, our capabilities, and explore possibilities for collaborative research. Please contact:
E. Brian Fite
216-433-3892
Collaboration
FOCUS ON FANS
Quiet, efficient fan systems are the result of painstaking attention to detail. Put a quiet fan into a poorly designed system, and fan aerodynamic and acoustic performance will suffer. Likewise, there are few easy system changes that can be made to compensate for an intrinsically noisy fan. Identifying dominant mechanisms for noise generation in a fan system and prescribing effective noise reduction methods are not simple tasks. Understanding the fundamental physics of fan aeroacoustics, and translating what we’ve learned into practical diagnostic, design, and analysis tools has been a primary focus of the NASA Glenn Acoustics Branch.
NASA Glenn has facilities, instrumentation, and experimental hardware to test a range of fans. The 9’ x15’ Low Speed Wind Tunnel has been used extensively to study the aerodynamic and acoustic performance of aircraft engine fan stages. The Advanced Noise Control Fan Rig has been used to develop active noise control systems. And the anechoic environments of the Acoustical Testing Laboratory and the Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory can be used to support specialized testing for smaller fans destined for use in spaceflight systems.
Developing quiet, efficient fan systems for spaceflight or for cooling electronics here on Earth is challenging. Check out our resource list for small fan aerodynamics and acoustics.
