Performance analysis of pedestal and table fans

Abstract

The pedestal and table fans are widely used to provide air mixing and comfort region in enclosed spaces. There are different brand of fans with various blade shapes, sizes and number of blades which lead to different level of performances. Aerodynamic characteristic is one of the important aspect which affects the fan performance. Performance of fourdifferent type of fans were analysed through the experimental measurements of velocity distribution, power consumption and angular velocity. A test rig was constructed with suitable instrumentation and integrated using a computerised data acquisition platform to acquire axial flow velocity measurements at each plane. The velocity distribution was measured at sufficient number of planes with different regulator position of the fan. Key parameters such as the flow rate, kinetic energy, linear momentum and the jet diameter were calculated from the experimental data. Different velocity distributions were obtained for different type of fans in the analysis of the data. Iso-velocity lines were obtained to analyse the spread of the velocity. Results show that the velocity profiles of the fans depend on the regulator position and blade parameters such as blade shape and material. It is also found that the overall energy efficiency of the fan depends on the angular velocity for different regulator positions. Further the incremental flow rate was also calculated to analyse the percentile change in flow rate for each regulator position. The impact on the performance when the fan was set to oscillate is also discussed in this paper. The results of the present study indicate the complexity of the influence of various parameters on the performance of the fan such as blade shape, angular velocity and power consumption and the necessity of a detailed experimental analysis of the velocity distribution of the fan for performance analysis.