Performance and Noise Study of CPAP Centrifugal Fan

• Main Authors: Dong-Ming Ye, 葉東明
• Other Authors: Sheam-Chyun Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/56451886218953680649

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 機械工程系 === 98 === Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is one of the most disturbing sleep diseases. Previous investigations have demonstrated that continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can be helpful for OSAS treatment via delivering steady barometric pressure through trachea. Thus, CPAP machine, powered by a centrifugal fan, is considered as the major instrument for offering appropriate air pressure and flow rate to cure OSAS patient, and becomes the research topic of this work. This work aims to establish a systematic fan design procedure for attaining a low noise, high performance, and efficient CPAP. At first, a commercial product is tested experimentally and simulated numerically. It is illustrated that the deviation between these results is an acceptable 6%, which is sufficient to validate the established CFD model, especially considering the correlated trend between two performance curves. After that, a mock-up with housing modification is fabricated and tested to confirm the enhancement of operation condition’s air pressure and flow rate by 23.3% and 11.1%. In addition, the power consumption is reduced from 12.48 to 11.76 W. Also, a 6 dB reduction on the first blade passage frequency is achieved by imposing extra damping system and reinforcing the rotor’s construction. Thereafter, a thorough parametric study on the rotor geometry is executed to examine the corresponding influence on the CPAP performance. The parameters considered here include blade number and geometry, such as its shape, inlet, and outlet angles. In conclusion, the static pressure, flow rate, and efficiency at the operation point are increased further by 5.37%, 2.36%, and 4.21%, respectively.