Cooling Fan Optimization for Heavy Electrified Vehicles : A study on performance and noise

Sammanfattning: Vehicle electrification plays a significant role in the effort to reduce the environmental impact of the automotive industry. Scania is one of the leading manufacturers ofheavy vehicles which is currently moving towards a sustainable transport system by manufacturing a new generation of heavy vehicles powered by batteries. Oneof the major concerns with these vehicles is related to the noise generated by the electric axial fans used in the cooling system. This project was conducted with thepurpose of investigating the factors that positively affect both noise and performance in the electric fans. Based on two different blade design methods and several noisecontrol techniques, 11 fan models were developed. The fan models created with design method 1 are equipped with cambered-plate blades, while the models madewith design method 2 consist of airfoil-shaped blades. Moreover, the performance of these models was analyzed by using theoretical methods and Computational FluidDynamics (CFD). In addition, two empirical approaches were used to estimate the acoustic energy emitted by the fan models. Furthermore, the developed modelswere compared with two commercially available fans. It was found that both design methods provide similar performance in low pressure differences. On the other hand,the efficiency and acoustic energy are influenced by the choice of the noise control methods.