Aeroacoustic analysis of industrial cooling fans

In this work an approach to the aeroacoustic analysis of cooling fans for industrial use is carried out. The first step of the analysis consists in the aerodynamic characterization of the fan, with the computation of the detailed pressure distribution over the blades. this task is carried out by means of a three-dimensional panel method. Afterwards, the computed pressure distribution is used as input for aeroacoustic analysis. The prediction of noise generated by the fan is obtained through the use of a computational tool developed at CIRA for the aeroacoustic analysis of helicopter rotors. In the first part of the document a short overview of the main characteristics of the aerodynamic and aeroacoustics analysis method is given; successively, the results obtained for two different cooling fans are illustrated.