AcoustiFLO: Enhancing Efficiency and Reducing Costs with IoT
Technology Category
- Sensors - Airflow Sensors
- Sensors - Liquid Detection Sensors
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Experimentation Automation
- Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Services
- Hardware Design & Engineering Services
- Testing & Certification
About The Customer
AcoustiFLO LLC is a privately held company based in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. The company specializes in custom fan application engineering, catering to customers who have efficiency and acoustic performance requirements that cannot be met with off-the-shelf systems. AcoustiFLO has a broad customer base, having worked with most major semiconductor manufacturers. The company boasts hundreds of fan installations around the world, demonstrating its global reach and the widespread demand for its specialized services.
The Challenge
The commercial fan market has been shifting from large custom-designed fan systems to more standardized factory-manufactured units. In response to this trend, AcoustiFLO aimed to develop an efficient small centrifugal fan that could be marketed as a standardized, modular component suitable for packaged air handlers. The concept for this small fan consisted of a centrifugal impeller housed in a vaneless diffuser. However, optimizing the static pressure efficiency of the unit required simultaneous optimization of both the impeller and the diffuser due to their interaction. The engineers at AcoustiFLO found that physical testing was not only cost prohibitive but also failed to provide the necessary insight into the airflow for design improvement. The less powerful CFD software they had been using for simpler design tasks lacked the power to analyze the turbulence and rotational dynamics in the impeller.
The Solution
AcoustiFLO turned to ANSYS Fluent CFD software to overcome these challenges. This technology allowed the engineers to systematically evaluate a large number of design changes before testing a prototype. They were able to verify that the Fluent model predictions were sufficiently close to the prototype test results. The software also enabled them to discover unexpected interactions between the diffuser and the impeller that would have been difficult to assess with physical testing alone. As a result, they were able to develop a prototype design with optimum performance. The use of Fluent CFD software not only provided valuable insights into the airflow inside the impeller and diffuser that would not have been possible with a testing-based approach but also increased the peak efficiency of the unit by 13 percent.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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