Fan Vibrations

Investigation of Large-Scale Cooling System Fan
Vibration
by
Jacques Muiyser
Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of

Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of
Engineering at Stellenbosch University
Supervisor: Dr Daniel Nicolaas Johannes Els

Co-supervisor: Prof Sybrand Johan van der Spuy
December 2016
Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
Declaration
By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of

the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole au-
thor thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction
and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third
party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted
it for obtaining any qualification.
Date: . . . . . December 2016 . .
Copyright © 2016 Stellenbosch University

All rights reserved.
i
Abstract
Investigation of Large-Scale Cooling System Fan Vibration

J. Muiyser
Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering,
University of Stellenbosch,
Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa.
Dissertation: PhD (Mech Eng)
December 2016
Air-cooled condenser fans operate under distorted inlet air flow condi-
tions that may lead to high levels of blade vibration. Three case studies were
considered where full-scale strain gauge measurements were conducted at
three separate fan installations. The measurements showed high dynamic
blade loading for two of these cases. Laboratory experiments confirmed that
blade vibration is a function of inlet flow distortion as well as downstream
flow obstructions such as the fan bridge. These findings were used to create
a potential flow simulation that can be used to determine the aerodynamic
blade loading profile exerted on a fan blade as a function of its rotational
position. The simulated load profile for a fan operating under distorted inlet
air flow conditions was applied to a dynamically equivalent finite element
representation of the fan blade. Good correlation between the simulated and
measured response of the fan blade was found. Using this same load profile
as excitation force in the multibody simulation of the dynamics of a complete
fan system, it was found that the effect of supporting bridge stiffness is neg-
ligible when compared to the effect of the ratio between the fan’s rotational
speed and the first natural frequency of the blades. This same result was
obtained when modelling the fan system as a collection of single degree-of-
freedom subsystems and applying an equivalent aerodynamic load obtained
from a measured response. The results obtained in this study were tested
against the test cases where the different observations could be explained.
Additionally, design recommendations could be generated based on the fan
system’s structural and operational parameters.
ii
Uittreksel
Ondersoek na grootskaal verkoelingsisteem waaier vibrasie

(“Investigation of Large-Scale Cooling System Fan Vibration”)
J. Muiyser
Departement Meganiese en Megatroniese Ingenieurswese,
Universiteit van Stellenbosch,
Privaatsak X1, Matieland 7602, Suid Afrika.
Proefskrif: PhD (Meg Ing)
Desember 2016
Lugverkoelde kondensator-waaiers funksioneer onder verwronge inlaat-vloei om-

standighede wat kan lei tot hoë vlakke van lem-vibrasie. Drie gevallestudies waar
volskaalse vervormings-metings uitgevoer is op drie aparte waaier-installasies, is
oorweeg. Die metings het hoë dinamiese lem-belasting getoon vir twee van die ge-
valle. Laboratorium eksperimente het bevestig dat lem-vibrasie ’n funksie is van ver-
wronge inlaat-vloei omstandighede sowel as obstruksies verder in die stelsel, soos
bv. die waaier-brug. Hierdie bevindings is gebruik om ’n potensiaalvloei-simulasie
te skep wat gebruik kan word om die aërodinamiese lem-belastingsprofiel wat uit-
geoefen word op ’n waaierlem as ’n funksie van die omwentelingsposisie te bepaal.
Die gesimuleerde belastingsprofiel vir ’n waaier wat onder verwronge inlaat-vloei
omstandighede werk is aangewend op ’n dinamiese ekwivalente eindige element
voorstelling van die waaierlem. Daar is goeie korrelasie gevind tussen die gesimu-
leerde en gemete reaksie van die waaierlem. Deur gebruik te maak van dieselfde
belastingsprofiel as opwekkingskrag in die multi-liggaam simulasie van die volledige
waaierstelsel, is daar gevind dat die effek van die ondersteunende brug-styfheid on-
beduidend is wanneer dit vergelyk word met die effek van die verhouding tussen die
waaier se rotasie-spoed en die eerste natuurlike frekwensie van die lemme. Dieselfde
resultaat is verkry toe die waaier-stelsel gemodelleer is as ’n versameling van enkel
vryheidsgraad substelsels, en ’n ekwivalente aërodinamiese belasting verkry vanaf
’n gemete reaksie aangewend is. Die resultate behaal in hierdie studie is getoets
teen toetsgevalle waar die verskillende waarnemings verduidelik kan word. Byko-
mend kan daar ontwerpsvoorstelle ontwikkel word gebaseer op die waaierstelsel se
strukturele en operasionele parameters.
iii
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the following people and or-
ganisations:
• My supervisors for their unending support and patience
• Ferdi Zietsman for all the assistance performing strain gauge measure-
ments in difficult environments
• Hans Heunis for always being willing to help and put in extra hours
with on-site testing even though it wasn’t part of his job description
• Frank Weissbuch for his expertise, advice and sense of humour
• My friends from the Sound and Vibration Research Group that assisted
in the lab
• Kelvion Thermal Solutions and Howden Fan Technology for their finan-
cial and logistical support
iv
Dedications
Hierdie tesis word opgedra aan Susan en Maya.
v
Contents
Declaration i
Abstract ii
Uittreksel iii
Acknowledgements iv
Dedications v
Contents vi
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xii
Nomenclature xiii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Air-cooled condensers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Air-cooled condenser fan system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Axial flow fans operating under distorted inlet air flow conditions 6
1.4 Project aim and objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Literature study 11
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Measurement of ACC fan performance and blade vibration . . . 11
2.3 Simulation of ACC fan aerodynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4 Simulation of fan blade forced response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5 Multibody simulation of fan system dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.6 Novel contributions of the current study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 Measurement of full-scale fan blade loading 24

3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2 Test Case A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
vi
CONTENTS vii
3.3 Test Case B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.4 Test case C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4 Experimental investigation of fan blade vibration 39

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 The effect of a fan bridge on fan blade vibration . . . . . . . . . 39
4.3 The effect of distorted inlet air flow conditions on fan blade
vibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5 Simulation of fan blade dynamics 55

5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.2 Selection of aerodynamic code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.3 Aerofoil profile and lift characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.4 Calculation of aerodynamic load profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.5 Full-scale blade parametrisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.6 Simplified finite element fan blade model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.7 Response of a single fan blade to aerodynamic loading . . . . . 71
5.8 Comparison to operational measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6 Simulation of fan system dynamics 75

6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.2 Fan blade model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.3 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6.4 Modal analysis of fan system model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.5 Simulation of Test Case A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.6 Simulation of Test Case C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7 Simplified numerical analysis 98

7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7.2 Calculation of an equivalent aerodynamic point load . . . . . . 98
7.3 Excitation reconstruction results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.4 Simulation of fan system vibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.5 Discussion of findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
8 Conclusion 114
8.1 Summary of findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
8.2 Design recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
8.3 Shortcomings of the current research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
8.4 Suggestions for future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Appendices 121
A Fan system geometry 122

CONTENTS viii
A.1 A-fan geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

A.2 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
B Full-scale measurements 125
C Single degree-of-freedom model 131
D Panel method formulation 133

D.1 Velocity potential for irrotational fluid motion . . . . . . . . . . . 133
D.2 Elementary velocity potential solutions for incompressible flow 134
D.3 Mathematical formulation of the panel method problem . . . . 135
D.4 Disturbance velocity equation for lifting bodies . . . . . . . . . . 136
D.5 Boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
D.6 Computation of velocities and pressures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
List of References 141

List of Figures
1.1 Direct air-cooled condensing system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 A large dry-cooled power station (source: Eskom (2016)) . . . . . 2
1.3 Diagram of the ACC for a single unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 An ACC as seen from the boiler house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5 Steam ducts and inclined fin tube heat exchanger bundles . . . . . 4
1.6 ACC support columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.7 Fan array as seen from below the ACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.8 Typical ACC fan unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.9 Representation of distorted inlet air flow conditions . . . . . . . . . 6
1.10 Photograph of a failed fan blade (Suptic, 2011) . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.11 Representation of research methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1 Wind screens installed at the Caithness ACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.2 Strain gauges installed at the neck of an aluminium fan blade . . . 13
2.3 Representation of a fan using the ADM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 Multiple fan test facility (source: Van der Spuy (2011)) . . . . . . 16
2.5 Campbell diagram (source: Marshall and Imregun (1996)) . . . . 18
2.6 Wind turbine model used by Hansen (2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1 Location of instrumented fan for Test Case A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.2 Lag- and flapwise directions for Test Case A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Strain gauge installation for Test Case A (Muiyser et al., 2014) . . 26
3.4 Measurements recorded by Muiyser et al. (2014) . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.5 FFT of full-scale blade loading (Muiyser et al., 2014) . . . . . . . . 28
3.6 Flapwise blade loading from Test Case A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.7 Strain gauge installation for Test Case B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.8 Strain gauge installation for Test Case B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.9 Wireless bridge amplifier and position sensor installation . . . . . . 31
3.10 Averaged flapwise blade loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.11 Flapwise blade loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.12 Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded on day 5 . . . . . . . . 34
3.13 Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded on day 4 . . . . . . . . 35
3.14 Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded for the six bladed fan 37
3.15 Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded for the nine bladed fan 37
ix
LIST OF FIGURES x
4.1 Schematic of the test facility adapted from Venter (1990) . . . . . . 40

4.2 Dimensions of the blade profile used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.3 Bridge with mesh inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.4 Bridge with plate inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.5 Strain gauges and wireless bridge amplifier attachment to fan . . . 43
4.6 Fan static pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.7 Average blade load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.8 Dimensionless blade loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.9 Blade loading amplitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.10 FFT of blade loading with a fan bridge and plate inserts . . . . . . 48
4.11 The multiple fan test facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.12 Strain gauges attached to a fan blade of the N-fan . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.13 MicroStrain SG-Link attached to the hub of the N-fan . . . . . . . . 50
4.14 Normalised rms values of the bending strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.15 Bending strain measured at H f = 2.5Dfan and H f = 1.5Dfan . . . . . 52
4.16 FFTs of blade loading at H f = 2.5Dfan and H f = 1.5Dfan . . . . . . . 53
4.17 CFD results using the ADM where H f = 2.5Dfan . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.18 CFD results using the ADM where H f = 1Dfan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.1 NACA 1275 aerofoil profile and blade surface measurements . . . 57

5.2 Aerofoil lift characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.3 Fan blade model consisting of several two-dimensional profiles . . 58
5.4 Blade azimuth angles and flow distortions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.5 Results of simulation with distorted inlet air flow conditions . . . . 60
5.6 Potential source near plane wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.7 Potential vortex near plane wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.8 Lifting force, Fl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.9 Drag force, Fd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.10 Full-scale blade in heavy structures laboratory . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.11 Diagram of experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.12 Suspended shaker setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.13 Strain gauges attached to neck of fan blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.14 Blade FRFs obtained with suspended shaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.15 Measured response of the full-scale fan blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.16 Aerodynamic loading and response of the fan blade . . . . . . . . . 72
5.17 FFT of simulation results with K = 1.1 × K tuned . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1 Model of the fan system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

6.2 An ADAMS discrete flexible link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.3 Massless beam (source: MSC Software (2012)) . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.4 Model of a single rotating blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.5 Determination of blade model damping ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.6 Blade model mode shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.7 Linear sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
LIST OF FIGURES xi
6.8 Auto power spectrum of linear sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

6.9 FRF of single fan blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.10 Blade natural frequency convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6.11 Results of the centrifugal effect test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.12 Centrifugal stiffening of the fan blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6.13 Top view of the fan system model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.14 FRF of the bridge structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.15 Bridge model with 20 elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.16 Investigation of fan bridge convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.17 FFTs of the fan system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.18 Tip displacement of fan blade at different operating speeds . . . . 94
6.19 Displacement of fan bridge at different operating speeds . . . . . . 95
6.20 Six bladed fan system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.21 Nine bladed fan system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.22 Spectral analysis of simulation for six and nine bladed fans . . . . 96
7.1 Full-scale validation results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

7.2 Response analysis of recorded measurements from Test Case A . . 102
7.3 Polar plot of reconstructed blade loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.4 Coefficient analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.5 SDOF approximation of fan system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.6 Simulink model of a bridge and single fan blade . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.7 SDOF system results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
8.1 Visual representation of design region for axial flow fans . . . . . . 116
8.2 Design recommendation for fan bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
A.1 Full-scale fan blade attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

A.2 Full-scale fan blade attachment as seen from below . . . . . . . . . 122
A.3 A single full-scale fan blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
A.4 Fan blade dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
A.5 Full-scale bridge from below showing walkway . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
A.6 Full-scale bridge from below showing cross-members . . . . . . . . 124
A.7 Fan bridge dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
B.1 Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 1 . . . . . . . . . . . 126

B.2 Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 2 . . . . . . . . . . . 127
B.3 Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 3 (morning) . . . . 128
B.4 Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 3 (afternoon) . . . 129
B.5 Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 3 (evening) . . . . 130
List of Tables
2.1 Vibration limits for fan manufacturer tests (ISO 14694, 2003) . . . 22
2.2 Vibration limits for fan in-situ tests (ISO 14694, 2003) . . . . . . . 22
5.1 Simulation parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
6.1 Dimensions of motor and gearbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

6.2 Natural frequencies and mode shapes of fan bridge . . . . . . . . . 89
xii
Nomenclature
As the current study is multidisciplinary in nature the nomenclature will be

separated based on the chapters in which the symbols can be found. This is
so that the field-specific symbols may be used wherever necessary.
Chapter 3, 4, 8 & Appendix B

a Flow coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
Dfan Fan diameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
Dinlet Inlet diameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
e Expansibility factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
E Strain amplitude from FFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
Emax Maximum strain amplitude from FFT . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
f Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ Hz ]
fn Natural frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ Hz ]
Hf Platform height i.e. distance from rotor . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
N Fan rotational speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rpm ]
psf Fan static pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
pdc Dynamic pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
∆pchamber Settling chamber gauge pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
∆pinlet Inlet gauge pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
q Flow rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m3 /s ]
Tchamber Settling chamber temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ ◦C ]
" Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]

"avg Average strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
∗
"avg Average strain for reference case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
"dyn Dynamic component of strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
"ref Reference strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
"rms Strain rms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
∗
"rms Strain rms for reference case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
γ Blade angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ degrees ]
xiii
NOMENCLATURE xiv
Γ Ratio between fan blade natural frequency and rotational speed,

f n /Ω . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
Ω Rotational speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ Hz ]
ρa Air density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ kg/m3 ]
Chapter 5 & 6
A Cross-sectional area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m2 ]
B1,2 Coefficients for Rayleigh damping matrix . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
c Chord length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m ]
C Damping matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
Cl Coefficient of lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
−
→
d Vector of nodal displacement amplitudes . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
−
→
D Nodal degree-of-freedom vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m ]
−
→
Dn Nodal degree-of-freedom vector at the n-th time step . [ − ]
E Young’s modulus of elasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
f Harmonic excitation force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N ]
f0 Natural frequency of fan blade during operation . . . . . [ Hz ]
f1,2,3 Natural frequencies of fan blade model . . . . . . . . . . . [ Hz ]
famp Amplitude of harmonic excitation force . . . . . . . . . . . [ N ]
F Excitation force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N ]
Fd Drag force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N ]
Fl Lifting force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N ]
h Height of source or vortex above plane wall . . . . . . . [ m ]
H1,2 Transfer functions between excitation force, F , and response, X [ m/N ]
I Area moment of inertia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m4 ]
k Rate of frequency increase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
k Element stiffness matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
K Global stiffness matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
K tuned Global stiffness matrix tuned to the A-fan blade . . . . [−]
l Length of beam element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
L Length of beam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
m Element mass matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
M Global mass matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
pa Air pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
n Time step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
NOMENCLATURE xv
N Number of fan blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]

r Distance in the radial direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
R Fan outer radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
R Force vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N / N·m ]
s1...12 Rotational and shear forces applied to beam element . [ N / N·m ]
Sf f Real power spectral density of F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N2 ]
Sx x Real power spectral density of X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m2 ]
Sx f Complex cross spectral density of F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ Nm2 ]
t Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [s]
∆t Time step size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [s]
U∞ Free stream velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
U0◦ Axial air flow velocity at the 0◦ position . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
U180◦ Axial air flow velocity at the 180◦ position . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
Ucross Cross flow velocity at fan rotor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
Uinlet Axial air flow velocity at fan inlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
v1,2 Transverse displacement at the ends of a beam element [m]
vr Relative air flow velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
x, y, z Distance/displacement in Cartesian coordinate system [m]
X System response to excitation force, F . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
yamp Amplitude of motion in y-direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
α Flow angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad ]

β, γ Coefficients for Newmark method of direct integration [ − ]
γ2 Coherence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
γr Blade angle at root . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ degrees ]
γt Blade angle at tip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ degrees ]
f n /Ω . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
Γ0 Ratio between fan blade operational natural frequency and rota-
tional speed, f0 /Ω . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
ν Poisson’s ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
ω Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad/s ]
ω1,2,3 Natural frequencies of cantilever beam . . . . . . . . . . [ rad/s ]
ωd Damped natural frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad/s ]
ωn Natural frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad/s ]
Π Ratio between fan blade and bridge natural frequencies, f n / f b [ − ]
NOMENCLATURE xvi
φ Phase lag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad ]

ρ Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ kg/m3 ]
ρa Air density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ kg/m3 ]
θ1,2 Rotations at the ends of a beam element . . . . . . . . . . [ rad ]
ζ Damping ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
Chapter 7
ap Real Fourier series coefficient for the p-th harmonic . . [−]
a0,1...na Denominator coefficients of discrete transfer function [−]
Ap Complex coefficient for the p-th harmonic . . . . . . . . . [−]
bp Imaginary Fourier series coefficient for the p-th harmonic [−]
b0,1...nb Numerator coefficients of discrete transfer function . [−]
c1,2...n Coefficient of damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N·m/s ]
f Harmonic excitation displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
F Excitation force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [N]
Gp Frequency response for the p-th harmonic . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
H1,2 Transfer functions between system input and output . . [ m/m ]
k1,2...n Spring stiffness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m ]
kf Spring stiffness for harmonic excitation . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m ]
m1,2...n Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ kg ]
n Blade number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
N Number of fan blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
p Harmonic number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
P Number of harmonic terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
Q Objective function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
r Response magnitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
t Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [s]
∆t Time shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [s]
x Displacement in Cartesian coordinate system . . . . . . . [m]
X 1,2,3 System input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
Y1,2,3 System output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [m]
" Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]

"avg Average strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]
f n /Ω . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
NOMENCLATURE xvii
ω Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad/s ]
ω0 Fundamental frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad/s ]
ωn Natural frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad/s ]
Π Ratio between fan blade and bridge natural frequencies, f n / f b [ − ]
ζ Damping ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
Appendix D
A, B, C, D Integration constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
CΦi Influence coefficient of the i-th panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ − ]
CU i j Velocity Influence coefficient of the i-th panel on the j-th panel [ − ]
p Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
p∞ Free stream pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ N/m2 ]
−
→
n Unit vector perpendicular to boundary surface . . . . . . [ m ]
−
→s Spatial coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m ]
S Boundary surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m ]
t Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ s ]
−
→
U Flow field velocity vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
−
→ˆ
U Disturbance velocity vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
−→
U∞ Free field velocity vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
Un Velocity perpendicular to boundary surface . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
U∞ Free stream velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
r, θ Complex coordinate denoted by z = x + i y . . . . . . . . [ m ]
u, v, w Velocities in the x-, y- and z-directions . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
z Complex coordinate denoted by z = x + i y . . . . . . . . [ m ]
α Flow angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad ]

Γ Vortex strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
λ Separation constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
Ω Vorticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ s−1 ]
Φ Velocity potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
Φ̂ Disturbance potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
Φ∞ Free stream potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/s ]
ρ Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ kg/m3 ]
σ Source strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
θi Orientation of the i-th panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]
ξ, η Coordinates of a point in a Cartesian coordinate system [m]
ζ Complex coordinate denoted by ζ = ξ + iη . . . . . . . . [m]
NOMENCLATURE xviii
List of Abbreviations
ACC Air-Cooled Condenser
ADM Actuator Disk Method
BPF Blade Passing Frequency
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
DFL Discrete Flexible Link
FE Finite Element
FFT Fast Fourier Transform
FRF Frequency Response Function
FSI Fluid-Structure Interaction
MBD Multibody Dynamics
PIV Particle Image Velocimetry
PJM Pressure Jump Method
SDOF Single Degree-Of-Freedom

Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Air-cooled condensers

In coal-fired power stations, water is boiled to produce steam that drives tur-
bines which generate electricity. This is known as the Rankine cycle. In order
to complete the cycle, steam is condensed using either water or ambient air,
referred to as wet- or dry- cooling, respectively. In arid regions an Air-Cooled
Condenser (ACC) is often constructed for the purpose of dry cooling (Kröger,
2004). Figure 1.1 shows a direct air-cooled condensing system. Air at atmo-
spheric conditions is drawn in from below the condenser and forced through
the heat exchangers. Axial flow fans are used due to the high mass flow
rates they can provide and the fin-tube heat exchanger bundles are inclined
to increase the heat transfer area. This is known as an A-frame configuration.
Generator
Turbine
Condenser
Steam
Condensate
Figure 1.1: Direct air-cooled condensing system
A photo of a large dry-cooled power station is shown in Figure 1.2. This

power station has a total of six units generating in excess of 500 MW each
and an ACC approximately 500 m long and 60 m wide. The ACC constitutes
1
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 2
an array of close to 300 fans that are each approximately 10 m in diameter

and are situated at a height of 50 m above ground level. More typically ACCs
have a smaller number of fans at a much lower height.
Figure 1.2: A large dry-cooled power station (source: Eskom (2016))
Figure 1.3 shows a diagrammatic representation of the relevant compo-

nents of a single unit’s ACC at a large power station. Each fan unit in the
array consists of an axial flow fan suspended from a bridge that serves as a
mounting point for its motor and gearbox. The entire array of fans is situated
on top of concrete support columns that allow for air to reach the fans.
Steam ducts Axial flow fans Heat exchanger bundles
50 m
Platform supports
Turbine hall
60 m
Fan bridges
Figure 1.3: Diagram of the ACC for a single unit

Additional photographs of a large ACC are shown in Figures 1.4 to 1.7.

Figures 1.4 and 1.5 show the ACC from above. In these figures the steam
headers as well as the inclined fin tube heat exchanger bundles are visible.
Figure 1.5 also shows the windwall that was implemented to prevent hot
air recirculation (Kröger, 2004). Figure 1.6 shows the corner of the ACC
where the 50 m tall support columns can be seen while Figure 1.7 provides
a photograph of the fan array as seen from below the ACC.
Figure 1.4: An ACC as seen from the Figure 1.5: Steam ducts and inclined fin
boiler house tube heat exchanger bundles
Figure 1.7: Fan array as seen from below

Figure 1.6: ACC support columns
the ACC
1.2 Air-cooled condenser fan system

Each ACC fan is driven by an electric motor through a reduction gearbox. As
shown in Figure 1.8, the fan is suspended from the gearbox that is mounted
on the fan bridge with the motor. When configured in this way, the axial flow
fan forces air through the fan bridge which consequently becomes a flow ob-
struction. This downstream flow obstruction creates unsteady aerodynamic
loads on the rotating fan blades which could cause vibration. Furthermore,
any vertical movement at the centre of the fan bridge will be translated to the
fan blades as a form of base excitation that could lead to further vibration.
As such the stiffness of the fan bridge may be an important consideration in
the design of the fan system.
Motor and gearbox
Air flow direction
Fan rotor
Bridge structure
Figure 1.8: Typical ACC fan unit

1.3 Axial flow fans operating under distorted

inlet air flow conditions
1.3.1 Performance implications
Fans installed in a large ACC often operate under windy conditions and in
the presence of other fans. Figure 1.9 shows how these conditions may cause
distorted air flow patterns at edge fan inlets. When operating under distorted
inlet air flow conditions the air flow velocity through the fan is higher on one
side than the other and as such causes the fan to operate differently than
it would under uniform inlet air flow conditions. These effects have been
investigated experimentally by Salta and Kröger (1995) where it was found
that a reduction in platform height reduces the volumetric effectiveness of
edge fans due to the increase in the air flow velocity across the fan inlet.
Edge fan experiencing distorted inlet air flow conditions
Windward side of the ACC
Figure 1.9: Representation of distorted inlet air flow conditions
1.3.2 Fan blade loading and vibration

When a fan is operating under ideal inlet air flow conditions it can be as-
sumed that the blade circumferential loading will be constant. This is due
to the fact that the angle of attack and relative air flow velocity over each
section of the rotating blade will remain constant. However, when exposed
to distorted inlet air flow conditions the blade will experience a variation
in aerodynamic loading as it rotates. This variation in aerodynamic loading

may, under certain conditions, cause the fan blade to vibrate. The intensity
of a blade’s vibration will depend on the relationship between the excitation
frequency and the natural frequencies of the blade as well as the structural
and aerodynamic damping present in the system. Blade vibration can lead to
gearbox damage, blade fatigue and in some cases, catastrophic blade failure,
as illustrated in Figure 1.10.
Figure 1.10: Photograph of a failed fan blade (Suptic, 2011)
1.4 Project aim and objectives

To date there have been no studies into the dynamics of complete ACC fan
systems. As will be demonstrated in Chapter 2, wind turbine and axial com-
pressor turbines have been investigated before. However, not all the lessons
learned can be applied directly to large-scale cooling system fans due to the
unique operating conditions. The sparse literature regarding full-scale mea-
surements at cooling system fans also contribute to the fact that there are
no structural design guidelines readily available for the dynamics of these
systems.
As a result of the aforementioned shortcomings, the aim of the current

thesis is to use measurements recorded at full-scale ACCs, experiments con-
ducted on scaled representations of the fan systems, and numerical analyses
to provide usable design criteria for future fan systems. Some of the param-
eters that are expected to affect fan system vibration include:
• Distorted inlet air flow conditions at fan inlet
• Clearance between the fan rotor and downstream bridge
• Fan bridge stiffness
• Fan blade stiffness
• Fan rotational speed
To accomplish this aim the objectives are to:
• Determine the causes of dynamic fan blade loading experimentally
• Investigate the effect of changing design parameters by simulating fan

system dynamics
• Generate design recommendations based on findings
1.5 Methodology
As there is no literature available regarding the analysis of fan system dy-
namics it was decided to initially approach the investigation from a system
level as opposed to investigating separate components, such as the compos-
ite fan blades or aerodynamics, in detail. Even though a top-down approach
such as the one being proposed would necessitate certain simplifications of
the fan system, it would allow for a first-order understanding of a complex
dynamic system which has, up to now, not been investigated before. In ac-
cordance with this research rationale, several experimental and numerical
investigations were conducted. These were as follows:
• Strain gauge measurements were recorded at multiple full-scale fans

during operation to determine blade loading and vibration under vary-
ing conditions. The results obtained were analysed to determine the
primary sources of vibration to be further investigated and/or simu-
lated.
• Some of the most prominent sources of vibration that were identified

during the full-scale studies were selected for further investigation on
scale representations of the fan system. Two sets of experiments were
conducted to determine the effect of the fan bridge and distorted inlet
air flow conditions on fan blade vibration. The purpose of replicating
observations made during full-scale testing was to better isolate and
analyse the various sources of vibration.
• A numerical model was created to simulate and analyse the effect of

the hypothesized aerodynamic sources of blade vibration. Aerodynamic
forces were calculated based on suspected inlet air flow distributions
and used to excite a fan blade modelled to have the same dynamic
characteristics as the full-scale blade. The results obtained were then
compared to full-scale measurements in the time and frequency domain
to validate the simulation.
• A model for the complete fan system was created using a combination
of rigid and flexible bodies representing the fan blades and bridge. The
aerodynamic loading that was calculated during the simulation of a sin-
gle fan blade was used as an excitation force that varied with rotational
and radial location of each element of the fan blade. Using this dy-
namic model, the effect of fan rotational speed and bridge stiffness was
investigated.
• To deliver a fan system design tool, the use of a simplified fan system
model was investigated using Single Degree-Of-Freedom (SDOF) equiv-
alents for the fan bridge and blades. The equations of motion for the
coupled system was then solved using Matlab/Simulink to investigate
the same parameters as with the flexible multibody dynamics simula-
tion.
Figure 1.11 shows a diagrammatic representation of the research method-

ology that has been described, where the interconnectivity between each ac-
tivity is clearly presented as well as the path followed to achieve the aim of
delivering design recommendations to minimise the fan system vibration of
future power stations.
Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Experimental
Full-scale
investigation
measure-
of fan blade
ments
vibration
Chapter 5
Aeroelastic
simulation of
a single fan
blade
Simulation of fan system

dynamics
Chapter 7 Chapter 6
SDOF Multibody
component dynamics
simulation simulation
Design recom-
mendations and
Chapter 8 methodology
Figure 1.11: Representation of research methodology

Chapter 2
Literature study
2.1 Introduction
As discussed in Chapter 1, distorted inlet air flow affects fan performance as
well as causes blade vibration due to the variation in aerodynamic loading.
This chapter aims to provide an overview of the relevant work conducted
in these areas. However, as the objective of the current study is to investi-
gate fan system vibration, the large volume of work conducted regarding fan
performance will only be briefly summarised.
2.2 Measurement of ACC fan performance and

blade vibration
Goldschagg (1993) determined that the performance of the ACC installed at
the Matimba power station in South Africa is directly affected by the prevail-
ing wind conditions. A decrease in performance as well as turbine trips1 were
observed in the presence of high wind speeds.
Van Aarde (1990) conducted an experimental study at a full-scale ACC
where he measured the outlet flow field at numerous fan units within the
ACC. He also measured the wind speed and direction at a weather mast
located in the vicinity of the ACC as well as the pressure distribution down-
stream of the axial flow fan. He found that the air flow through the fan units
generally decreased under windy conditions while the fan static pressure in-
creased. Most importantly, he discovered that the axial flow fans located on
the edge of the ACC operate under distorted inlet air flow conditions caused
by cross flow at the fan inlet.
1
A trip occurs when the back pressure from the ACC causes condensation of the process
steam on the last stage of the turbine.
11
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE STUDY 12
Fan blade vibration is of major concern to plant operators due to the fi-
nancial implications in terms of increased maintenance costs to fan systems.
Maulbetsch and DiFilippo (2015) reports on the findings of a study conducted
at the Caithness Power Station. The goal was initially to improve the perfor-
mance of the power station (Maulbetsch and DiFilippo, 2014) by installing
wind shields around the periphery of the ACC. The wind shields are made of
a porous material that reduces the amount of cross flow at the inlets of fans
located on the edges of an ACC. The installation at Caithness can be seen in
Figure2.1. The researchers have shown that, in addition to improving the
performance of the plant, the wind screens also reduce the loading on the
fan blades under windy conditions. This confirms that the cross flow velocity
has an effect on fan system vibration.
Figure 2.1: Wind screens installed at the Caithness ACC (source: Maulbetsch and
DiFilippo (2015))
Weissbuch (2012) performed long term strain gauge measurements on

aluminium fan blades installed at a ACC. The results for this study are not
available, but the strain gauges attached to the neck of the fan blade can be
seen in Figure 2.2. Similar work was conducted by Muiyser et al. (2014)
where strain gauge measurements were recorded at a full-scale fan during
operation. The results of the study are used in the current investigation and
are detailed in Section 3.2.
Figure 2.2: Strain gauges installed at the neck of an aluminium fan blade (source:
Weissbuch (2012))
Van der Spek (2003) writes that most cooling system fan vibration is
caused by rotor imbalance. He also identified the vibration of the fan stack,
or the ring surrounding the fan, as a problem and investigated its response
as a result of pressure fluctuations around the blade tip. To reduce the vibra-
tions a so-called Aerotip was developed, which is attached to the blade tip
with the aim of reducing the pressure fluctuations around the blade tip.
Closely related to the loading of the fan blades, Reihanian et al. (2011)
investigated the fatigue failure of the U-bolts fastening the fan blades to the
hub plate of a horizontal axis cooling fan. Fractography analysis of a U-bolt’s
fracture surface showed evidence of fatigue failure. The researchers then
determined the loading conditions and created a Finite Element (FE) model
of the U-bolt to calculate its fatigue life.
2.3 Simulation of ACC fan aerodynamics

As mentioned previously, large ACCs consist of hundreds of individual fans,
of which a substantial number operate under distorted inlet air flow condi-
tions. When simulating an ACC using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
the modelling each of these fans, or even a symmetrical representation of the
ACC, would be incredibly expensive computationally. Masi and Lazzaretto
(2012) state that 1.5 million cells are necessary to model a single blade pas-
sage of a fan accurately. However, they also show that for industrial appli-
cations as little as 200 000 cells may be used to model a complete fan with
all its geometry; at a cost of underestimated fan performance. As a result
of these limitations, a substantial amount of research has been performed in
order to create and validate the use of simplified fan models to model fan
performance in an ACC.
Thiart and Von Backström (1993) documented a numerical model de-

scribed by Thiart (1990) to simulate the flow field near an axial flow fan
operating under distorted inlet air flow conditions. The model was based on
the Actuator Disk Method (ADM) which replaces a detailed model of an axial
flow fan with an annular region where a step change in air flow velocity field
occurs. The effect of the fan rotor is determined by making use of the lift and
drag characteristics of each blade element. An upstream and downstream
disc is used to determine the average air flow velocity at the rotor. The lift
and drag forces are aligned to the fan orientation and added as source terms
into the Navier Stokes equations in the CFD solver. The implementation of
the three discs is shown in Figure 2.3.
Upstream disc
Actuator disc model
Downstream disc
Flow direction
Figure 2.3: Representation of a fan using the ADM
Thiart (1990) placed the inlet of a ducted axial flow fan in the wall of a
wind tunnel to simulate distorted inlet air flow conditions. The results ob-
tained with this configuration were used to validate the numerical model.
Hotchkiss et al. (2006) later made use of the ADM to numerically confirmed
the findings of Stinnes and Von Backström (2002), who determined that fan
power consumption remains largely independent of air inlet flow angle while
the fan static pressure, and subsequently its performance, is adversely af-
fected by off-axis inlet air flow.
Using the ADM, Van Rooyen (2007) was able to simulate the effect of wind
on an ACC with 30 axial flow fan units. He found that the edge fans and the
performance of the ACC are adversely affected by the presence of winds while
some of the internal fans experience an increase in performance. He made
use of the solutions obtained from a large scale simulation to determine the
inlet air flow distributions at specific fans.
An even simpler axial flow fan model can be created using the Pressure
Jump Method (PJM). The fan model consists of a boundary across which
there is an increase in static-to-static pressure obtained from the fan’s per-
formance curve depending on the flow rate. The PJM is computationally
inexpensive and was used by Louw (2011) to determine the effects of wind
on the performance of an ACC with 384 fans. He investigated the perfor-
mance improving effects of skirts and screens and made recommendations
regarding the orientation of the ACC.
Gao et al. (2009) also used the PJM to model a large ACC in order to de-
termine the effect wind has on its heat transfer performance. The researchers
found that the turbine back pressure, and thereby the chance of a turbine trip,
increases with increasing wind speed due to decreasing air flow through the
fans as well as increased inlet air temperatures as a result of hot air recircula-
tion. In addition to these researchers, many others have also used the PJM to
model ACCs including Owen (2010), Joubert (2010), Borghei and Khoshko
(2012), Zhang and Chen (2015), He et al. (2013), He et al. (2014) and Yang
et al. (2010).
To investigate the effect of varying levels of cross flow Visser (1990) con-
structed a multiple fan test facility where up to 6 fans of 630 mm diameter
could be tested. This test facility is shown in Figure 2.4. In order to alter the
amount of fan inlet crossflow, the platform height could be adjusted. Visser
(1990) found that the edge fan experienced the greatest reduction in volu-
metric flow rate at low platform heights. However, this was improved with
the addition of a 150 mm wide walkway to the windward side of the edge
fan.
Salta and Kröger (1995) made use of the same multiple fan test facility
to show that fans located on the periphery of the ACC are more susceptible
to distorted inlet air flow conditions than the interior fans. They published
graphs showing the decrease in each of the 6 fans’ volumetric effectiveness
where it was clear that the edge fan experiences the greatest decrease at
decreasing platform heights.
Conradie (2010) reduced the number of fans in the test facility from six
to three after which Van der Spuy (2011) made use of the same multiple fan
testing facility to evaluate the effectiveness of various simplified fan models.
The ADM and PJM were evaluated at low platform heights by measuring the
volumetric effectiveness of each 630 mm fan as well as the inlet air flow dis-
tribution by means of particle image velocimetry (PIV). These measurements
showed clear distorted inlet air flow at the fan inlets when the platform height
is decreased, with the edge fans effected most severely. Van der Spuy (2011)
also developed the extended actuator disk method in order to account for the
inception of radial flow in the fan rotor at low flow rates.
Finally, Fourie et al. (2015) used the multiple fan testing facility to inves-
tigate the effect of wind on the performance of axial flow fans in ACCs. The
test facility was used to validate numerical models which were then used to
predict the performance of a complete ACC operating under windy condi-
tions.
Figure 2.4: Multiple fan test facility (source: Van der Spuy (2011))
2.4 Simulation of fan blade forced response

Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) is the interaction between fluid flow and
its effect on the deformation of flexible bodies. FSI simulations can be classi-
fied as being unidirectional or bi-directional. Unidirectional FSI only involves
the mapping of the physical properties resulting from the analysis of a fluid
model to the solid model. In the case of an axial flow fan, a uni-directional
FSI simulation would calculate the aerodynamic forces exerted on the blade
surfaces and use this to determine the deformation of the fan blade. How-
ever, the deformed fan blade then interacts differently with the air flow than
the blade which has not yet deformed and as such the flow field needs to
be recalculated. This is known as a bidirectional FSI simulation and is an
iterative process taking place between structural and fluid dynamics solvers.
Simulations involving FSI are often incorporated when aeroleastic effects

are being studied. According to Marshall and Imregun (1996), aeroelasticity
refers to:
". . . the interaction that takes place within the triangle of the in-
ertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces acting on structural mem-
bers exposed to an airstream, and the influence of this study on
design."
The researchers also describe blade flutter as the self-excited vibration of

a blade in an air stream whereas a blade’s forced response is due to unsteady
aerodynamic forces causing excessive vibration. Furthermore, as illustrated
in the Campbell diagram shown in Figure 2.5, flutter usually occurs at a nat-
ural frequency of a component while forced response is generally a function
of the machines rotational speed, or the engine order excitation. Each "fam-
ily" on the left of the graph represents a natural frequency of a component or
assembly that remains relatively constant with increasing rotor speed. The
diagonal lines represent the increase in frequency of each engine order (EO)
as a linear function of rotor speed. Resonance then occurs when the diago-
nal engine order lines cross those of the assembly’s natural frequencies. Plots
such as these typically show the magnitude of vibration in different colors, as
in a spectrogram. Oro et al. (2009) further classify unsteady aerodynamics
into non-deterministic mechanisms such as flutter and deterministic mecha-
nisms such as the potential interaction or tip leakage flows.
Marshall and Imregun (1996) as well as Kamakoti and Shyy (2004) de-
scribe various techniques used in aeroelastic analyses. Fluid models include
potential flow codes as used by Stumpf and Peters (1993) who created a
model to determine the aeroelastic deformation of a helicopter rotor in for-
ward flight by using a combination of inflow, air loads and structural theories.
The theory for the global aerodynamic environment was coupled to the the-
ory for the structural dynamics of the blades by means of an unsteady air
loads model. They calculated the blade loading by determining the pressure
difference between the upper and lower surfaces based on the normal veloc-
ity distribution across the blade while induced inflow was calculated using
the potential flow method.
A second aerodynamic model which may be used for aeroelastic simula-
tions is the previously described ADM. Hotchkiss et al. (2006) made use of
the ADM model developed by Meyer and Kröger (2001) to predict the lag-
and flapwise forces exerted on a 1.542 m diameter fan blade as a function
of its rotational position. Their model introduced a component of off-axis
inlet flow by adjusting the inlet flow angle relative to the axial direction of
the fan. Using this model they were able to show that there is a fluctuating
aerodynamic load exerted on the fan blade under off-axis inlet flow condi-
tions. The extent of the fluctuation was found to increase with an increasing
Figure 2.5: Campbell diagram used by Marshall and Imregun (1996) to illustrate
the difference between flutter and forced response
inflow angle. In addition, the aerodynamic load was predicted to attain its
maximum value when the blade passes the windward side of the fan.
Bredell et al. (2006) investigated the effect of crossflow on blade loading
by creating a multiple fan model with an adjustable platform height using
the ADM. They also found that fan blade loading fluctuates under cross-
flow conditions with a maximum load experienced as the blade passes the
windward side of the fan. They normalised their loading graphs with respect
to the steady aerodynamic load at ideal inlet conditions and found that the
maximum blade load was higher at a platform height of 14 m than 26 m.
The maximum aerodynamic load predicted at a height of 14 m was 160% of
the load under ideal inlet conditions. They also found that the addition of
a solid walkway around the periphery of the ACC, detailed by Visser (1990)
to increase the volumetric flow rate through the perimeter fan, reduced the
load fluctuations to 130% of the blade loading under ideal inlet conditions.
For cases where a simplified model is not required, more computation-
ally intensive techniques may be implemented. For example, investigating
various mitigation strategies for ACC fan blade vibration, Romano (2015)
uses CFD simulations to determine blade loading under conditions of vary-
ing cross wind velocity. These loads were then used to determine the dynamic
response of the fan blade and investigate several vibration mitigation tech-
niques. The research showed that wind screens as well as a different fan shaft
design reduce blade vibration.
A weakly coupled approach was followed by Jonson (2008) who created a

FE model of a fan blade similar to, but larger than the one modelled by Bredell
et al. (2006) and tested by Swiegers (1989) and Muiyser (2012). He created
a FE model of the composite fan blade by making use of the ply lay-up details
and blade construction methods. Peak aerodynamic loading extracted from a
transient CFD analysis of a detailed fan model was used as a load case for the
FE model. The CFD analysis made use of the pressure difference between the
upper and lower surfaces of the fan blade to determine the loading. It was
found that each blade experiences fluctuating loads with a maximum load
occurring at the windward side of the fan.
Jun et al. (2011) made use of the FSI capabilities inherent to the ANSYS
suite of simulation software packages to simulate the aeroelasticity of a 1.8 m
diameter axial flow fan. The purpose of the simulation was to determine the
variation in loading that caused a blade of such a fan to break off at the root.
In this simulation the pressure exerted on a blade was transferred between
the fluid and structural solver. It was found that the blade vibrates at its own
natural frequency as a result of the aerodynamic excitation brought about by
the fluctuating pressures. Consequently, the safety factor selected during the
design phase needs to be twice as high when the effect of aeroelasticity is
considered.
Since there exists very little published work regarding the forced response
of ACC fan blades, the literature study has been extended to other areas of
turbomachinery and applied mechanics. Axial compressors or wind turbines
share certain geometric or operational similarities with cooling system fans
even though the applications are vastly different.
Hansen et al. (2006) review the techniques for aeroelastic simulation of
wind turbines. The use of an ADM (also used by Mikkelsen (2003) and
Hartwanger and Horvat (2008) to simulate wind turbines) and vortex/panel
methods as well as various structural modelling techniques are detailed. The
panel method is formulated through a number of potential sources and vor-
tices representing the flow about an immersed body. The researchers state
that some shortcomings of the inviscid panel method technique are that it is
not suitable for transient analysis and cannot accurately model the flow near
the hub where there is significant flow separation. However, this method is
also credited for providing better understanding of dynamic inflow effects
and flow development.
Carstens et al. (2003) demonstrate how the governing fluid and structural
equations may be solved simultaneously to simulate the aeroelastic effects
of oscillating shocks and strong flow separation in an axial compressor. To
determine the blade’s response the structural and Navier-Stokes equations
were solved numerically using the Newmark method of direct integration.
Unfortunately the results could not be compared to experimental data as no
measurements existed for the system being simulated.
Mahri and Rouabah (2008) used axial momentum and blade element
theory to calculate the aerodynamic forces exerted on a small wind turbine
blade. The axial momentum theory uses the air flow velocity up- and down-
stream of the turbine rotor to calculate the thrust on and the power extracted
by the rotor. The blade was then modelled as a continuous beam using beam
displacement theory. The results obtained using the analytical methods was
compared to a second FE analysis where good correlation was found.
2.5 Multibody simulation of fan system

dynamics
A shortcoming in the work performed by Romano (2015) is that the effect of
fan bridge vibration was never studied numerically. Instead, the effect that
the mechanism to reduce blade vibration had on the fan bridge was tested
after installation. However, the effect of the fan bridge on blade vibration
may only be analysed if the dynamics of the entire fan system is simulated.
Details pertaining to the analysis of ACC fan system dynamics have not
been published to date. However, work has been conducted in the wind en-
ergy sector to determine the dynamic response of wind turbine structures
and power trains. Hansen (2003) created a multibody model of a 600 kW
horizontal axis wind turbine for the purpose of a modal analysis where the
nacelle was allowed seven degrees-of-freedom and each blade was simulated
using modal expansion. The equations of motion were then derived via La-
grange’s method where centrifugal stiffening was added as an additional po-
tential energy term. A representation of the mathematical model is provided
in Figure 2.6
Figure 2.6: Wind turbine model used by Hansen (2003)

To determine the dynamic response of a multibody system the dynamic set

of equations based on the model’s constraints and motions need to be solved
(Negrut and Dyer, 2004). Schlecht et al. (2004) advocates the use of multi-
body simulations to determine, in particular, more accurate load conditions
for drive train design. The researchers also detail two distinct methods which
may be used to create the blade models. The first of these is the modelling
of the blade as a separate multibody system made up of masses and stiff-
nesses. The second method is the FE approach, where the blade is modelled
completely and imported into the multibody simulation.
Tibaldi et al. (2016) simulated the resonant response of three 1.5 MW
class wind turbines using a multibody approach. The blades and tower were
modelled using Timoshenko beams and the aerodynamic model is based on
the blade element momentum theory. The edgewise vibration of the blades
was investigated under wind loading as well as externally applied excitation
forces. These excitation forces were selected in order to approximate effects
such as gravity, large scale turbulence and wakes.
2.6 Novel contributions of the current study

2.6.1 Analysis of fan system structural dynamics
The preceding sections have demonstrated that literature regarding the struc-
tural dynamics of full-scale fan systems is sparse. Even though some mea-
surement projects have been conducted to determine the extent of fan blade
vibration under adverse operating conditions, very little work has been pub-
lished regarding the quantitative effect of various vibration inducing sources.
Unless measurements are recorded over a very long period of time, it is chal-
lenging to isolate and investigate specific sources of vibration when conduct-
ing a full-scale measurement project.
As such, The novelty of the current investigation is in firstly making use of
rarely published full-scale data to identify and possible causes of aerodynamic
excitation which are then verified through laboratory experimentation. Sec-
ondly, these findings are then used in the analysis of a simplified structural
dynamic representation of a fan system based on existing methods.
2.6.2 Generation of design guidelines regarding fan

system dynamics
The literature discussed in this section illustrates that ACC fan performance
is a topic that has been researched over a long period of time using a variety
of techniques. The reason for this is that cooling system performance directly
influences the performance of a power station and as such has instantly mea-
surable financial consequences. In contrast, fan blade vibration rarely causes
catastrophic failures or shutdowns of the entire plant. However, as power

stations become older, operators have begun to identify the effects of fan
system vibration on the frequency of attachment bolt failure and gearbox re-
placement. However, very few guidelines regarding the design for dynamics
of a cooling system fan are available.
ISO 14694 (2003) provides vibration limits for fans tested at the manu-
facturer’s site. Table 2.1 provides these values for a variety of fan applications
where ACC fans fall under category BV-3 for "Industrial process & power pen-
etration etc". These values are those that are to be adhered to when a fan
manufacturer tests an assembled fan. Furthermore, ISO 14694 (2003) also
provides vibration limits for fans that have been installed and can be tested
during operation. These values are given in Table 2.2 and need to be mea-
sured at the bearing housing. Van der Spek (2003) states that for ACC fans
the value of 6.3 mm/s is most commonly adhered to.
Table 2.1: Vibration limits for fan manufacturer tests (ISO 14694, 2003)
Fan application category r.m.s. velocity [mm/s]
Rigidly mounted Flexibly mounted
BV-1 9.0 11.2
BV-2 3.5 5.6
BV-3 2.8 3.5
BV-4 1.8 2.8
BV-5 1.4 1.8
Table 2.2: Vibration limits for fan in-situ tests (ISO 14694, 2003)
Fan application Rigidly mounted Flexibly mounted
category r.m.s. velocity r.m.s. velocity
[mm/s] [mm/s]
Start- Alarm Shut- Start- Alarm Shut-
up down up down
BV-1 10.0 10.6 * 11.2 14.0 *
BV-2 5.6 9.0 * 9.0 14.0 *
BV-3 4.5 7.1 9.0 6.3 11.8 12.5
BV-4 2.8 4.5 7.1 4.5 7.1 11.2
BV-5 1.8 4.0 5.6 2.8 5.6 7.1
* To be determined from historical data
Furthermore, ISO 14694 (2003) states that:
"Foundation design and fan installation are not normally the re-
sponsibilities of the fan manufacturer. It is fully expected that the
foundations upon which the fan is mounted will provide the sup-
port and stability necessary to meet the vibration criteria of the
fan as it is delivered from the factory."
This implies that ACC fan manufacturers cannot be held liable when a fan
is installed on a bridge that is perhaps too flexible. This raises the question
of how stiff a fan bridge needs to be to provide the necessary support for the
fan; a research question which is yet to be investigated.
Daly (1978) thoroughly advises on cases where unbalances, both static
and dynamic, may cause vibration of the fan system, but does not make any
mention of possible aerodynamic excitation of the blades due to distorted
inlet air flow conditions. In addition, fan selection criteria such as those pre-
scribed by Hudson Products Corporation (2000) only specify that the fan’s
rotational speed and bridge passing frequencies need to be considered and
compared to the blade’s first natural frequency. Cory (2005) and Banyay and
Gutzwiller (1982) also state that only the natural frequencies of fan com-
ponents, the operating speed and blade passing frequency (BPF) need to be
considered for safe fan operation. No mention is made regarding the other
harmonics of the rotational speed.
Neff and Lahm (2014) state that excitation of large axial flow ventilation
fans may be excited by loads such as aerodynamic forces, inertial forces and
torque. These forces excite the fan blades at frequencies equal to the har-
monics of the fan’s rotation. However, no reference is provided regarding
the relative magnitudes of these harmonic excitation forces and what, specif-
ically, is the cause.
It is as a result of the inconsistent recommendations provided by the cited
literature for the design of axial flow fan systems that a further novel con-
tribution of the current study is the generation and consolidation of several
design guidelines for the structural longevity of cooling system fans based
on modelling and experimentation. In addition, the creation of a design tool
based on these findings that could be used for the analysis of fan system
structural dynamics would be a valuable addition to the industry.
Chapter 3
Measurement of full-scale fan

blade loading
3.1 Introduction
The purpose of the current investigation is to determine the effect of various
fan system parameters on vibration. A number of experimental studies have
been performed by the author and a colleague from WMT Mess- und Prüftech-
nik. These data sets are described and analysed in the following sections
and will be referred to in subsequent chapters. Note that the recorded mea-
surements were not typically conducted in accordance to ISO 14695 (2003)
and ISO 10816-3 (2009) because accelerometers weren’t used to measure
vibration of stationary components; only strain gauge measurements were
conducted to determine dynamic blade loading.
3.2 Test Case A

The first set of data was recorded by the author as part of a previous study
(Muiyser et al., 2014). These measurements were performed at a large ACC
where each unit had six rows of eight, eight bladed fans. The location of the
instrumented fan as well as the orientation of the ACC and angular conven-
tion can be seen in Figure 3.1. An edge fan was selected near the longitudinal
center of the ACC to provide a good amount of flow distortion while keep-
ing the expected primary direction of incoming air flow perpendicular to the
edge of the ACC.
24
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT OF FULL-SCALE FAN BLADE LOADING 25
N
Instrumented fan 0◦
ACC 270◦ 90◦
180◦
Turbine hall
Figure 3.1: Location of instrumented fan for Test Case A
3.2.1 Experimental configuration

Strain gauges were attached to the cylindrical neck of a single fan blade by
Muiyser et al. (2014) at an edge fan of a large-scale ACC. Two sets of gauges
were attached in a full-bridge configuration to measure bending strain in
two perpendicular directions. Normally, the strain gauges would be placed
in such a way that the flap- and lagwise bending strains can be measured.
These directions are indicated on Figure 3.2 and correspond to the y- and x-
directions where the x-direction is in the plane of rotation and the y-direction
is perpendicular to that. However, for Test Case A the gauges were attached
to measure bending strain in the blade’s chord-wise direction at the neck, x 0 ,
and the direction perpendicular to this, y 0 . For Test Case A the angle between
these two sets of axes was 37◦ .
y (flapwise)
y0
x0
x (lagwise)
Figure 3.2: Lag- and flapwise directions for Test Case A

By using a full-bridge configuration one is able to obtain the maximum

sensitivity and compensate for any changes in temperature (Hoffman, 2012).
Additionally, any axial forces introduced through centrifugal loading of the
blade during it’s rotation is also compensated for. The attachment of the
strain gauges in the flap- and lagwise directions is shown in Figure 3.3.
Flapwise gauges
Lagwise gauges
Figure 3.3: Strain gauge installation for Test Case A (Muiyser et al., 2014)
The gauges that were used were HBM 1-DY43-6/350 strain gauges. These
gauges contain two separate 6 mm, 350 Ω grids parallel to each other and are
temperature compensated for aluminium. Each set of gauges was connected
to a MicroStrain V-Link wireless bridge amplifier which was attached to the
hub plate of the fan. These bridge amplifiers then transmitted the measure-
ments to their base stations for data acquisition at a rate of 150 Hz for a
duration of between four and six hours. To determine the blade loading as a
function of the blade’s rotational position a Hall-effect proximity sensor was
installed such that a pulse would be generated each time the fan blade passed
the windward side of the casing.
Finally, the wind speed and direction was recorded using the on-site weather
mast. The mast was located approximately 700 m from the ACC and recorded
measurements at a height of 40 m.
3.2.2 Measurement results

Measurements were recorded over an 8 day period and are well described by
Muiyser et al. (2014). Figure 3.4 shows a set of measurements recorded from
the weather mast and flapwise strain gauges. Note that the strain measure-
ments, ", have been normalised with respect to the average measured strain,
"avg . These results show that the maximum strain is 2.5 times the average
value and that it decreases with decreasing wind speed. This is because in-
creased wind speeds result in larger air flow distortions at the fan’s inlet and
as such the fan blade experiences a greater variation in aerodynamic loading.
25 S
Wind speed
SE
Wind direction
20
E
Wind speed [m/s]
Wind direction
15 NE
N
10 NW
W
5
SW
0 S
3.0
Normalised flapwise strain, "/"av g
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
−0.5
−1.0
12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
Figure 3.4: Measurements recorded by Muiyser et al. (2014)

Results obtained during operation of the fan showed large vibrations at

the fan blade’s first natural frequency of f n = 6 Hz, as measured by Swiegers
(1989). However, further analysis in the frequency domain by means of a Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT), shown in Figure 3.5, indicated that there were also
significant contributions to the measured blade loading at once and twice
the rotational speed of the fan, Ω. The reason for the high dynamic loads
was due to the fact that the first natural frequency of the blade was equal to
three times the rotational speed of the fan and as such the third harmonic of
the fan’s rotational speed was exciting the blade. The spectral data shown
here, E, is only the dynamic component (steady state removed) and was
normalised with respect to the maximum amplitude obtained from the FFT,
Emax .
3Ω ≈ f n
1.0
Dimensionless amplitude, E/Emax
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Dimensionless frequency, f /Ω
Figure 3.5: FFT of full-scale blade loading (Muiyser et al., 2014)
Reefman and Krabbenbos (1983) performed an analysis on the same fan

blade as installed at the power station where the measurements for Test Case
A were recorded. The researchers installed the fan at a platform height of 6 m
to create distorted inlet air flow conditions. Strain gauges were then used to
measure the alternating strain during operation by means of slip ring and a
real-time analyser. A frequency analysis showed peaks at the fan’s rotational
speed as well as its first and second harmonic. As with the current study it
was noted that the amplitude of the second harmonic is increased due to the
natural frequency of the blade and that the first harmonic was increased due
to the natural frequency of the bridge.
As a result of the frequency analysis it was decided to further investigate

the measured response. To determine the aerodynamic loading the excited
vibration of the fan blade at its own natural frequency was subtracted from
the measured response. This procedure is the physical equivalent of a band
rejection filter. The remaining signal showed that the aerodynamic load was
indeed periodic and that there was a large peak at the windward side of the
fan (0◦ ) as a result of the distorted inlet air flow. However, a second smaller
peak was present at the opposite side of the fan (180◦ ) which was expected
to be a result of the fan passing beneath the fan bridge. However, this peak
could also be as a result of the fan bridge natural frequency, as postulated by
Reefman and Krabbenbos (1983).
2.0
Measured data
1.8
Aerodynamic load
Dimensionless bending, "/"av g
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180
Azimuth angle [degrees] (see Figure 3.1)
Figure 3.6: Flapwise blade loading from Test Case A with and without the blade’s
resonant response
3.3 Test Case B

The second set of measurements was also recorded by the author for a com-
mercial project that was unrelated to the current investigation. However,
after analysis of the data consent was given by the industry partner that the
measurements be used in the current investigation. These measurements
were recorded on a fan with eight blades. However, due to the lower ro-
tational speed and larger blades the ratio between the rotational speed and
the first natural frequency of the fan blades, Γ = f n /Ω, was equal to 2.4
instead of 3 as in Test Case A, which resulted in significantly lower blade

vibration levels. Additionally, the amount of cross flow at the fan inlet was
controllably influenced by switching on fans in the vicinity of the fan that was
instrumented. For each test the instrumented fan was first run in isolation
for approximately 30 min after which the three surrounding fans or the com-
plete unit, consisting of 64 fans, was switched on as well. This allowed the
effect of the surrounding fans to be investigated separately from the effect of
the wind speed and direction.
Instrumented fan
180◦
ACC
90◦ 270◦
0◦
Turbine hall
Figure 3.7: Strain gauge installation for Test Case B
3.3.1 Experimental configuration

Strain gauges were again attached to the cylindrical neck of a single fan blade
in order to measure blade loading in the flap- and lagwise directions. The
same gauges and configuration was used as described for Test Case A. Fig-
ure 3.8 shows the strain gauges installation for Test Case B. In addition to the
gauges and position sensor, the same telemetry system was used as with Test
Case A. Figure 3.9 shows the installation of the bridge amplifier and position
sensor on the hub of the fan.
Lagwise gauges
Flapwise gauges
Figure 3.8: Strain gauge installation for Test Case B
MicroStrain V-Link
Position sensor
Figure 3.9: Wireless bridge amplifier and position sensor installation for Test Case
B
3.3.2 Measurement results

Measurements were recorded over a period of several days and the average
blade load measured on day 1 and day 2 is shown in Figure 3.10. The av-
eraged data is obtained by smoothing the signal through convolution with a
Hanning window which is 60 s long. On day 1 the three fans adjacent to the
one being monitored were switched on after approximately 30 min, while on
day 2 the entire unit was switched on after the same amount of time. As
such, the instantaneous bending load, M , is normalised through division by
the average bending load that was calculated up to 30 min, Mref . When the
three adjacent fans were switched on the average flapwise bending load in-
creased by approximately 5%. In the case where the entire unit was switched
on the blade loading increased by approximately 15%. This indicates that the
other fans in the unit have the effect of greatly increasing the average flap-
wise bending load by decreasing the total flow rate through the fan. The
decreased flow rate through the fan causes an increased fan static pressure
which is the source of the increased average bending load.
The complete set of measurements recorded on day 2 can be found in
Figure 3.11 where one can see an increase in the blade loading amplitudes
when the instrumented fan was no longer operating in isolation. This is due
to the distorted inlet airflow conditions brought about by the interior fans
drawing air in past the inlet of the corner fan.
Dimensionless averaged flapwise strain, "/" r e f
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
Day 1 - surrounding fans running
0.7
Day 2 - complete unit running
0.6
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
Time [h]
Figure 3.10: Averaged flapwise blade loading for the cases where the surrounding
fans were switched on (Day 1) and the complete unit was switched on (Day 2) after
approximately 30 min
2.0
Dimensionless flapwise strain, "/"av g

1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
−0.5
10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00
Figure 3.11: Flapwise blade loading
A Hall-effect position sensor was used to determine when the instrumented

fan blade passed beneath the fan bridge at the 0◦ position. These measure-
ments were then combined with the blade loading to determine the loading
profiles for various conditions.
Figure 3.12 shows the loading profile for the case where there was very
little wind and the fan was running in isolation on day 1. The full set of
data for this and every other day, including wind speed and direction, can
be found in Appendix B. It can be seen that there is a distinct peak at the 0◦
position with a flatter rise between the 90◦ and 270◦ positions. The peak at
0◦ is due to the interaction between the fan blade and bridge while the rise is
as a result of the fan bridge and wind conditions. Even slight winds and the
operation of the fan causes distorted inlet air flow conditions which creates
a higher blade load at the windward side of the fan.
Figure 3.12 also shows an FFT of the blade load. In this figure the fre-
quency, f , has been made dimensionless through division by the rotational
speed of the fan, Ω,. The figure also indicates significant cyclical loading at Ω
and 2Ω which can be attributed to the distorted inlet air flow conditions and
bridge effect, respectively. The distorted inlet air flow conditions introduce
a once-per-revolution increase in blade loading whereas the bridge has an
effect that is seen twice per revolution of the fan. The additional peaks at
3Ω and 4Ω can be attributed to the fact that the bridge impulse is not purely
harmonic at 2Ω and as such constitutes of various other frequency multiples.
Note that for the case where there is very little wind and the fan is operat-

2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0
0.045
Dimensionless amplitude, E/"av g
0.040
0.035
0.030
0.025
0.020
0.015
0.010
0.005
0.000
0 2 4 6 8 10
Figure 3.12: Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded during windless conditions
on Day 5
ing in isolation the dynamic loading caused by the bridge is larger than that
caused by the distorted inlet air flow conditions.
Figure 3.13 shows the dynamic analysis of the blade loading under windy
conditions and the operation of the entire unit. Under these conditions the
peak at 180◦ is much larger than the peak at 0◦ due to the distorted inlet
air flow conditions having a much larger effect when the internal fans are
drawing in air past the edge fan. This can also be seen in the FFT where the
peak at the rotational speed of the fan is now larger than the peak at twice the
rotational speed. Furthermore, it can be seen in Figure 3.12 and Figure 3.13
that the blade’s first natural frequency at 2.4Ω is not being excited. This is
because the blade’s natural frequency is not close to a multiple of the fan’s
rotational speed.

2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0
0.16
Dimensionless amplitude, E/"av g
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
0 2 4 6 8 10
Figure 3.13: Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded during windy conditions
on Day 4
3.3.3 Comparison to Test Case A

Analysis of the measurements recorded for Test Case A showed that the fan
blades vibrated at their own natural frequency when subjected to the aero-
dynamic loading caused by the distorted inlet air flow conditions and the
fan bridge. At this installation the first natural frequency of the fan blades
was approximately three times the rotational speed of the fan and as such
the vibration amplitudes were significantly larger than those measured for
Test Case B. Figure 3.5 shows the FFT of the blade loading measured for Test
Case A where it can be seen that the vibration of the fan blade at its own
first natural frequency of approximately 6 Hz is by far the largest contributor
to the overall dynamic loading of the fan blade. Furthermore, the peaks at
once and twice the rotational speed are comparable in magnitude to those
measured during the current investigation which indicates that the effect of
the distorted inlet air flow conditions and fan bridge, respectively, are com-
parable to what was measured during the current investigation and shown
in Figure 3.13.
3.4 Test case C

A third set of short term tests were carried out by WMT Mess- und Prüftechnik
on an ACC that had the same fan blades as that of Test Case B. However, these
fans had six or nine blades and not eight as in Test Case B and operated at a
different speed. This ACC was also significantly smaller than the one of Test
Case B. The raw data that was recorded during these tests have been made
available and were analysed as part of the current investigation. For each
case the FFT was calculated using the dynamic flapwise strain, once again
normalised with respect to the maximum amplitude of each recording.
3.4.1 Six blade fan configuration

Initially, a six bladed fan situated on the edge of the ACC was tested. Flapwise
bending strain was measured at the neck of the blade in the same way as it
was measured for Test Case A and B. Figure 3.14 shows the measurements
recorded on the six bladed fan. Unfortunately, no wind measurements were
recorded, but it was reported that the wind speeds were in excess of 10 m/s
during these tests. As with Test Case A, the rotational speed of the fan was
approximately a third of the blade’s first natural bending frequency i.e Γ ≈ 3,
which results in a very large response due to resonance.
3.4.2 Nine blade fan configuration

Additional measurements were recorded at a later stage when the instru-
mented fan was replaced by a nine bladed fan. The fan bridge was also stiff-
ened in the horizontal direction, increasing its natural frequency for bend-
ing horizontally by 21%. During these tests the wind speed varied between
16 m/s and 8 m/s and resulted in very high dynamic loading of the fan blade.
The measured blade loading is shown in Figure 3.15. An FFT of the data
shows that because the blade is again excited at its natural frequency its reso-
nance is the largest contributor to the loading. However, due to the stiffening
of the fan bridge or the increase in the number of fan blades the contribution
at 4Ω is significantly reduced.
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Figure 3.14: Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded for the six bladed fan for
Test Case C
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Figure 3.15: Dynamic analysis of blade loading recorded for the nine bladed fan for
Test Case C
3.5 Summary
Full-scale measurements have shown that fan blades vibrate due to variations
in aerodynamic loading. It is expected that fan installation and environmen-
tal effects contribute to the variation in aerodynamic loading. However, mea-
surements recorded at power stations with different operating speeds indi-
cate a difference in excitation mechanism. As such, in the following chapters
the various sources of vibration will be investigated and the effects of certain
design parameters determined.
Chapter 4
Experimental investigation of fan

blade vibration
4.1 Introduction
Due to the observations made when conducting full-scale measurement projects,
it was decided to investigate the effect of various suspected vibration sources
in a laboratory environment where the parameters could be controlled and
isolated. Two suspected sources of fan blade vibration were selected for in-
vestigation: the effect of the fan bridge and that of distorted inlet air flow
conditions.
4.2 The effect of a fan bridge on fan blade

vibration
It was hypothesized that the fan blade passing beneath the fan bridge causes
it to experience a flow disturbance at a rate of twice the fan’s rotational speed.
Air flow measurements recorded by Van Aarde (1990) have shown that the
air flow is reduced downstream of the fan bridge, indicating that its pres-
ence does indeed have an effect on the fan’s operation. Similar to the effect
of the fan bridge, Neff and Lahm (2014) state that for ventilation fans the
downstream static guide vanes are generally a source of vibration excitation.
For this investigation, a representation of a fan bridge was built and in-
stalled at a standard test facility for 1.542 m axial flow fans. The design of
the fan bridge and initial testing was performed as part of a final year project
at Stellenbosch University. However, the final testing and subsequent data
analysis was performed by the author.
39
CHAPTER 4. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FAN BLADE VIBRATION 40
4.2.1 Fan test facility

The test facility, shown in Figure 4.1, was designed by Venter (1990) and
is referred to as a Type A facility according to the BS 848: Part 1 standard
(BS 848, 1997). This is also known as a free inlet, free outlet facility.
Air flow enters the wind tunnel through a fibre glass bell mouth inlet
which is 1 m in diameter. The bell mouth possesses four pressure taps, evenly
spaced around its circumference that allow for the measurement of the aver-
age static pressure experienced at the inlet, ∆pinlet .
Guide vanes
Throttling device Auxillary fan
Inlet
∆pinlet
Tchamber
Settling chamber Mesh screens ∆pchamber Fan and motor
Figure 4.1: Schematic of the test facility adapted from Venter (1990)
A throttling device is used to regulate the volumetric flow rate of the air
through the wind tunnel. The throttling device controls the position of an
array of louvres, which restrict air flow and can be adjusted to a total of 21
positions by means of a mechanical arm situated on the outside of the wind
tunnel. An auxiliary fan is located downstream of the throttling device and
is used to overcome the pressure losses caused by the various components of
the wind tunnel.
The settling chamber serves as an inlet for the test fan and has inner di-
mensions of 4 m × 4 m × 7 m. Additionally, the settling chamber contains a
set of three rectangular mesh screens which ensure a uniform inlet air flow
velocity profile. The settling chamber pressure, ∆pchamber , is measured by
four pressure taps that are located on the walls of the chamber.
Finally, the 1.542 m diameter test fan is housed in a shroud and is located
at the outlet of the settling chamber. The test fan is driven by an electric motor
connected through a torque transducer located outside the settling chamber,
downstream of the fan, and is controlled by means of a variable speed drive.
4.2.2 Test fan

For the purpose of this investigation aluminium blades were used with pro-
files that were machined in accordance with the dimensions given by Riegels
(1961) in Figure 4.2. This fan does not have the same cross-sectional profile
as a typical full-scale cooling fan and as such does not have the same lift and
drag characteristics either. However, for the purpose of this investigation it is
not necessary to replicate the performance of the full-scale fan, but rather to
investigate the effects of the fan bridge on a fan’s performance and vibration.
6◦
2,
5 ,7
1,68
37
1,5
◦
5
43,1 17,24
120
Figure 4.2: Dimensions (in mm) of the blade profile used in accordance with Riegels
(1961)
4.2.3 Bridge design and configurations

The axial flow fan used to conduct the investigation is six times smaller than
the full scale cooling system fan and as such the bridge was designed by
scaling all full scale dimensions by a factor of six as well. The scale model
of the bridge was constructed with 20 mm steel square tubing representing
the structural I-beams of the full-scale bridge. Non-structural components,
such as the hand rails and the walkway supports were omitted due to the
assumption that their effect on air flow would be negligible.
Furthermore, the scale model of the bridge was designed to be installed

at an adjustable distance from the fan rotor to enable the investigation of the
effect that variations in the distance between the fan bridge and rotor has
on fan performance. Two distances between the bridge and fan were investi-
gated. These were selected based on the 1:6 scale of the fan being tested. The
selected distances were 150 mm and 250 mm, representing the cases where
the bridge is placed close to the fan and far from the fan, respectively. For
these cases the bridge distance to fan diameter ratios are 0.1 and 0.16, re-
spectively. The ratio for the full-scale bridge is 0.09, which is only slightly
lower than the case where the bridge is placed close to the fan.
Additionally, as shown in Figure 4.3 and Figure 4.4, the grid walkway of
the full-scale bridge can be represented by interchangeable mesh and plate in-
serts, respectively. This reconfigurability allows for the investigation of walk-
ways with different levels of flow obstruction. For the investigation a mesh
with an open-to-total area ratio of 0.6 was used. This ratio was calculated by
measuring the area of a single opening in the mesh insert and by multiplying
by the number of openings, determining the ratio of open area to the total
area of the insert.
4.2.4 Strain gauges and instrumentation

To measure blade loading, a set of strain gauges was attached near the root
of a single blade of the fan being investigated. As shown in Fig. 4.5, by using
a blade profile with flat pressure and suction surfaces, the strain gauges were
easily attached and connected in a full bridge configuration to measure the
bending strain near the root of the blade. By using a full bridge configuration
maximum measurement sensitivity is achieved and the axial forces exerted
on the blade due to centrifugal loading are compensated for.
Xu et al. (2004) also attached strain gauges to a single fan blade and com-
pared their measurements to results obtained through a FE analysis. They
found that the FE analysis was unable to accurately predict the measured
stresses, but believed that this was due to the vibration of the blade causing
a higher stress amplitude than was predicted.
To record the strain measurements from the rotating fan, a MicroStrain
SG-Link wireless bridge amplifier was used. This is the same amplifier as was
used for a full-scale investigation and is capable of wirelessly transmitting
data up to a rate of 736 Hz. Furthermore, an HBM Spider8 was used for
the data acquisition from the pressure and torque transducers as well as the
rotary encoder used to measure the fan’s rotational speed.
The natural frequency of the blade was determined by exciting the blade
with an impulse and allowing the blade to vibrate freely while the measured
strain was recorded. This data was analysed using an FFT where the first nat-
ural frequency of the blade for transverse bending was found to be 10.76 Hz.
Figure 4.3: Bridge with mesh inserts Figure 4.4: Bridge with plate inserts
MicroStrain SG-Link
Strain gauges
Figure 4.5: Strain gauges and wireless bridge amplifier attachment to fan
4.2.5 Results
The fan characteristic curves were constructed using data obtained during
the course of the experimentation. Figure 4.6 shows the fan static pressure,
ps f , curves for a number of bridge configurations with the reference data
representing an installation with no bridge present. The mass flow rate was
calculated according to the procedure outlined in the BS 848: Part 1 standard
(BS 848, 1997) using equation 4.2.1.
2
aeπDinlet
q= 2ρa ∆pinlet (4.2.1)
p
4
According to the BS 848 part 1 standard (BS 848, 1997), the fan static
pressure is defined as the difference between the static pressure at the outlet
of the fan and the stagnation pressure at the inlet of the fan. As such, the fan
static pressure, psf , is calculated using equation 4.2.2
psf = pdc + ∆pchamber (4.2.2)

When considering Figure 4.6, it can be seen that the presence of a flow
obstruction downstream of the axial flow fan results in a decrease in the fan
static pressure at higher flow rates. It should also be noted that the decrease
in fan static pressure rise is relative to the degree of flow obstruction down-
stream of the fan as well as the distance between the obstruction and the
fan. The greatest decrease in fan static pressure is seen when the bridge is
mounted close to the fan with the solid plate inserts. The case where the
bridge is placed further away with solid plate inserts also shows a decrease
in fan static pressure that is less than when the bridge is placed close to the
fan, indicating that the distance between the flow obstruction and the fan is
an important consideration in the design of a fan system. Additionally, for the
configuration where mesh inserts were used close to the fan, the decrease in
fan static pressure is very small. Note that a region of negative static pressure
rise is present at high flow rates when the test fan operates as a turbine due
to the effect of the auxiliary fan.
As shown in Figure 4.6, the fan static pressure rise increases with decreas-
ing flow through the fan. It can be assumed that the average blade loading
is proportional to the fan static pressure and as such it is expected that the
average blade load would also increase with decreasing flow rate. Figure 4.7
shows the average normalised blade loading for each bridge configuration at
a variety of flow rates. The blade loading for this figure has been normalised
with respect to the maximum average load for the reference case. It can be
seen that the average blade load does indeed increase with decreasing flow
rate. However, the curves do not exhibit the same trends at higher flow rates
as the fan static pressures in Figure 4.6 do. There is very little difference
between the different loading curves, which indicates that the average blade
loading is less sensitive to changes in bridge configuration than the fan static
pressure rise.
200
Reference
150 Mesh at 0.1 × Dfan
Fan static pressure, ps f [Pa]
Plate at 0.1 × Dfan
100 Plate at 0.16 × Dfan
50
Flat plate fan
0 Fan diameter: Dfan =1.542 m
Blade angle: γ = 10◦
Density: ρa = 1.2 kg/m3
−50 Rotational speed: N = 750 rpm
−100
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Flow rate [m3 /s]
Figure 4.6: Fan static pressure
1.1
Reference
1.0 Plate at 0.1 × Dfan
Mesh at 0.1 × Dfan
"avg / "avg
∗
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Flow rate [m3 /s]
Figure 4.7: Average blade load

Upon further investigation of the measured data, it was found that the am-
plitude of the measured blade loading differs greatly for different bridge con-
figurations and flow rates. Figure 4.8 shows two cases where strain measure-
ments were recorded while the bridge with plate inserts was installed. The
graph on the left shows the measurements recorded at a high flow rate while
the graph on the right shows measurements recorded for the same installa-
tion at a lower flow rate. Only the dynamic component of the strain, which
is calculated by subtracting the average value from the measured strain, is
shown in each case to illustrate the change in amplitude.
100 100
Measured dynamic strain, "dyn [µm/m]
50 50
0 0
−50 −50
−100 −100
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Time [s] Time [s]
Figure 4.8: Dimensionless blade loading for the case where plate inserts are used
with a high flow rate (left) and a low flow rate (right)
To obtain the amplitude of blade loading for each combination of flow rate
and bridge configuration the root mean square (rms) value was calculated for
the dynamic component of each set of measurements. This dynamic compo-
nent was obtained by simply subtracting the average load from the measure-
ments to disregard the effect of increasing or decreasing average blade load
as a function of flow rate. The results of this analysis is shown in Figure 4.9
and indicates that there is indeed an increase in the blade loading amplitude
for every bridge configuration at higher flow rates. As can be expected, the
largest amplitudes are experienced when the bridge is placed close to the fan,
with plate inserts and the amplitudes decrease with the decreasing levels of
air flow obstruction of the other bridge configurations. The amplitudes pre-
sented here have been normalised with respect to the maximum amplitude
of the reference case.
3.0
Reference
Mesh at 0.1 × Dfan
"rms / "rms
∗
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
3
Flow rate [m /s]
Figure 4.9: Blade loading amplitudes
As seen in Figure 4.9, at low flow rates there is an unexpected increase

in blade loading amplitudes for all of the bridge configurations as well as
the reference curve. To analyse this occurrence, an FFT was performed on
two data sets where the bridge was placed close to the fan with plate inserts.
Figure 4.10 shows the FFTs for the case where the bridge was placed close to
the fan and contained plate inserts. The figure exhibits three distinct peaks at
approximately 12 Hz, 18 Hz and 24 Hz where the peak at 12 Hz corresponds
to the rotational speed of the fan causing a variation in blade loading due
to the effect of gravity. The peak at 24 Hz corresponds to the bridge passing
frequency, which is twice the rotational speed of the fan. Note that the peak
at the bridge passing frequency is much larger at higher flow rates, which is
to be expected considering the results shown in Figure 4.9. In contrast, the
peak at the rotational speed of the fan remains the same irrespective of the
flow rate. Alternatively, the third peak at approximately 18 Hz only appears
at low flow rates, which also coincides with what was observed in Figure 4.9.
It is assumed that the reason for the increase in vibration at low flow rates
is due to the onset of stall. Research conducted on axial flow fans operating
at low flow rates have shown the transient nature of flow separation dur-
ing stall which may cause the broadband excitation observed around 18 Hz
(Louw et al., 2015). However, the detailed analysis of air flow phenomena
not related to the effect of the bridge falls outside the scope of the current
project and was not further investigated.
102
Amplitude of measured strain [µm/m] High flow rate
Low flow rate
101
100
10−1
10−2
10−3
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 4.10: FFT of blade loading with a fan bridge and plate inserts
4.3 The effect of distorted inlet air flow

conditions on fan blade vibration
As discussed in Chapter 3, observations from full-scale measurement projects
have shown that fan blade loading increases under increasing levels of cross
flow below the fan inlet. It was hypothesized that the increased levels of
vibration is due to the distorted inlet air flow conditions causing a large vari-
ation in blade loading. To test the hypothesis blade loading was measured on
the multiple fan test facility shown in Figure 4.11. Three 630 mm diameter
fans are installed next to each other and the floor height lowered to increase
the cross flow at the inlet of the fan situated nearest the edge. In this way
varying levels of distorted inlet conditions are created and their effects stud-
ied.
Heinemann and Becker (2014) installed a 300 mm diameter fan with for-
ward skewed blades in a wind tunnel at an angle of 90◦ to determine the effect
that cross winds have on axial flow fan vibration. The researchers made use
of a laser scanning vibrometer (LSV) to measure blade vibration at two flow
rates with and without the presence of a cross wind. The researchers found
that at high flow rates only the higher harmonics were affected by the cross
winds whereas at lower flow rates most of the amplitudes increased. The
researchers did not compare the blade’s natural frequencies to the operating
speeds and as such it is difficult to draw any comparison to the current study
where the fan blades are being excited by aerodynamic instabilities.
Edge fan
1.5Dfan
2.5Dfan
Figure 4.11: The multiple fan test facility
4.3.1 Test fan and instrumentation

The fan to be tested was the same as used by Van der Spuy (2011) and Fourie
et al. (2015). The reason for this is that the expected natural frequency of the
slender blades would be low enough to conduct a test that is comparable to
full-scale measurements. The geometry of the fan is such that it is a 630 mm
replica of a 9.216 m fan, currently being used in the power generation indus-
try. The exact details of the fan geometry are described by Conradie (2010).
Strain gauges were attached to a single Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) fan blade
using cyanoacrylate. The 350 Ω HBM gauges were configured to measure
full-bridge bending strain and can be seen in Figure 4.12. The gauges were
then connected to a MicroStrain SG-Link, which is a wireless bridge amplifier
used to measure the bending strain during operation. Two SG-Link units were
attached to the hub of the fan to minimise any unbalance and can be seen in
Figure 4.13. The brackets on which the SG-Link units were attached do not
extend more than a few mm past the edges of the hub and as such is expected
not to influence the air flow into the fan. Measurements were recorded at a
rate of 512 Hz, which was deemed acceptable when compared to the 15.5 Hz
(930 rpm) test speed of the fan. This speed, which is lower than the 1000 rpm
used by Van der Spuy (2011) and Fourie et al. (2015), was selected because
it is approximately half of the blade’s natural frequency, which was measured
to be equal to 29 Hz.
Figure 4.12: Strain gauges attached to a fan blade of the N-fan
Figure 4.13: MicroStrain SG-Link attached to the hub of the N-fan
4.3.2 Test procedure

To simulate the effects of increasing cross flow at the inlet of the instrumented
edge fan, the floor height was adjusted to reduce the cross-sectional inlet
area of the multiple fan installation. Tests were conducted at dimensionless
platform heights, H f , of 4.5Dfan , 3.5Dfan , 2.5Dfan and 1.5Dfan . At each height,
as well as a reference point with no floor installed, the blade loading was
measured for approximately 30 s.
4.3.3 Results
As shown in Figure 3.11, the amplitude of the dynamic blade loading mea-
sured at the full-scale facility increased when the surrounding fans were
switched on. To investigate the effect of cross flow on blade vibration the
root mean square (rms) value of the blade loading was calculated for the
various platform heights. Figure 4.14 clearly shows the increase of the mea-
sured vibration as the platform height is reduced from 4.5Dfan to 2.5Dfan . At
a platform height of 1.5Dfan a slight decrease in bending load is observed.
1.40
1.35
Normalised strain rms, " r ms /" r∗ms
1.30
1.25
1.20
1.15
1.10
1.05
1.00
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Dimensionless platform height, H f /D f an
Figure 4.14: Normalised rms values of the bending strain measured at different
platform heights
The decrease in blade loading observed at a platform height of 1.5Dfan

is counter-intuitive due to the fact that the cross flow velocity, and distorted
inlet air flow, both increase with decreasing platform height (Van der Spuy,
2011). Figure 4.15 shows that the measured response of the blade differs
when H f = 2.5Dfan (left) and H f = 1.5Dfan (right). Such a change in response
would indicate that there is a change in the excitation mechanism.
Figure 4.16 shows FFTs of the measured strain for the case where the
platform height is at 2.5Dfan and 1.5Dfan . These results have been normalised
with respect to the amplitude of the response at twice the rotational speed
of the fan in order to compare the ratio of the other harmonics to this value
for both cases. The results show that there is a definite change in excitation
mechanism as the platform height is reduced beyond a height of H f = 2.5Dfan
due to the fact that the ratio between the harmonics have changed. At a
platform height of 1.5Dfan the response component at a frequency of twice the
rotational speed is not as dominant as it is at a height of 2.5Dfan . Furthermore,
the dotted line plotted on Figure 4.16 shows the normalised magnitude of
the response component measured when there is no floor installed where
one can see that the normalised magnitude of this component is comparable
to that of the case where the platform is at the low height of 1.5Dfan . This
correlation indicates that the excitation mechanism at a low platform height
and an infinite platform height may be similar.
3.5 3.5
3.0 3.0
2.5 2.5
Normalised strain, "/"av g
2.0 2.0
1.5 1.5
1.0 1.0
0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0
−0.5 −0.5
−1.0 −1.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Time [s] Time [s]
Figure 4.15: Bending strain measured at H f = 2.5Dfan (left) and H f = 1.5Dfan

(right) normalised with respect to the average in each case
To visualise the change in excitation mechanism the results of two numer-

ical simulations performed by Van der Spuy (2011) using the actuator disk
model for a platform height of H f = 2.5Dfan and H f = 1Dfan are shown in
Figure 4.17 and Figure 4.18, respectively. The air flow distributions indicate
that at a platform height of 1Dfan the cross flow velocity becomes so great that
the area of flow separation bypasses the edge fan entirely. In contrast, at a
height of 2.5Dfan the inlet air flow at the edge fan is clearly distorted and one
would expect the blades to experience a much greater variation in loading.

Note that these observations only apply to the edge fan and that higher cross
flow velocities may cause the area of flow separation at the edge of the ACC
to extend to interior fans, resulting in increased vibration levels.
1.0 1.0
Normalised amplitude, E/Emax
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0.0 0.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]
Figure 4.16: FFTs of blade loading at H f = 2.5Dfan (left) and H f = 1.5Dfan (right)
normalised with respect to the maximum amplitude in each case
Figure 4.17: CFD results using the ADM Figure 4.18: CFD results using the ADM
where H f = 2.5Dfan (source: Van der where H f = 1Dfan (source: Van der
Spuy (2011)) Spuy (2011))
4.4 Summary
The investigation has shown that even if a fan is expected to operate under
steady air flow conditions, it cannot be assumed that the blade loading will
also be steady if there is a downstream flow obstruction such as a fan bridge
present. As such, fan bridges need to be designed in such a way to minimise
its effect on blade vibration. As a result of these observations, in order to
minimise blade vibration, it is recommended that if the fan bridge is con-
structed from a material that has an open-to-total area ratio of at least 0.6,
the bridge distance should be at least 0.16 times the fan diameter. Further-
more, the results obtained verify that increasing wind speeds increase the
levels of vibration experienced by fans installed in an ACC.
Chapter 5
Simulation of fan blade dynamics
5.1 Introduction
Full-scale measurements and laboratory experiments have been used to iden-
tify certain expected vibration inducing flow effects. These effects have been
investigated and verified experimentally. To determine the effect of various
fan system parameters it becomes necessary to simulate the dynamics of a
complete fan to enable the alteration of these parameters.
To simulate an entire fan system the aerodynamic excitation forces that
are exerted on the fan blades need to be determined. Currently, measured
data only provides a single equivalent bending load at the blade neck whereas
the distribution of aerodynamic loading as a function of the blade’s rotation
is required for further simulation.
5.2 Selection of aerodynamic code

To determine the aerodynamic loads exerted on an axial flow fan it can be
assumed that each blade experiences the same load profile as a function of
its rotational position. As such, only a single fan blade needs to be modelled.
It was decided to use simple techniques to model the blade in an attempt to
effectively isolate and analyse the vibration inducing effects of aerodynamic
loading. An example of such an approach is the work conducted by Lee et al.
(2012) where the modified strip theory was used to obtain aerodynamic loads
for an aeroelastic simulation of a wind turbine blade. The use of simplified
aerodynamic models is also advocated by Schlecht et al. (2004) as an input
for multibody simulations.
55
CHAPTER 5. SIMULATION OF FAN BLADE DYNAMICS 56
Potential flow codes have been used by researchers such as Lee et al.
(1988) to simulate the aerodynamics of submerged bodies. The inviscid
formulation was later adapted to the XFOIL code (Drela, 1989), which was
used to accurately determine aerofoil lifting characteristics (Timmer and Van
Rooij, 1992). More recently, XFOIL was used by Fincham and Friswell (2015)
to optimise a camber morphing aerofoil, thereby illustrating how such a code
may be incorporated in a variety of computational loops. Furthermore, the
effectiveness of XFOIL to simulate aerofoils operating in low Reynolds num-
ber flows has been demonstrated by Morgado et al. (2016) by comparing the
results generated by XFOIL with conventional CFD models. It was found that
even at high angles of attack XFOIL is still able to predict aerofoil character-
istics as accurately as the more conventional CFD models.
As a result of the observations and findings listed above, the potential
flow source/vortex panel method was selected to calculate the aerodynamic
forces exerted on the fan blade. However, instead of using XFOIL, a cus-
tom code was written in Python (Python Software Foundation, 2016) which
could integrate with other specially coded functions to determine the blade’s
forced response. The mathematical formulation for this method is provided
in Appendix D.
5.3 Aerofoil profile and lift characteristics

To accurately simulate the fan’s behaviour, it is important to ensure that the
aerofoil profile used in the simulation has the same aerodynamic character-
istics as the full-scale fan blade. The aerofoil selected for the current investi-
gation was the NACA 1275 profile (Moran, 2003) and is compared to surface
measurements taken at a cross-section of the fan blade investigated by Bre-
dell et al. (2006) in Figure 5.1. The NACA profile does not match the surface
measurements of the A-fan profile exactly. However, the selected NACA pro-
file matches the A-fan’s lift characteristics well and provides a set of equations
for a closed profile that can easily be implemented with the panel method.
Figure 5.2 shows the lifting characteristics obtained using the potential flow
solution with the NACA 1275 aerofoil as well as the CFD simulated character-
istics of the full-scale blade profile (Bredell, 2005). Due to it being an inviscid
formulation, the potential flow solution is incapable of modelling flow sepa-
ration and blade stall. As such, it overestimates the lift ability of the blade at
high angles of attack. However, under normal operating conditions the blade
is assumed to operate far from its stall point and as such the potential flow
solution remains valid.
0.20
Surface measurements
0.15 NACA 1275 profile
0.10
0.05
y/c
0.00
−0.05
−0.10
−0.15
−0.20
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
x/c
Figure 5.1: Selected NACA 1275 aerofoil profile as well as measured points on blade
surface
2.0
Potential flow solution
Aerofoil data
1.5
Coefficient of lift, Cl
1.0
0.5
0.0
0 5 10 15 20
Angle of attack [degrees]
Figure 5.2: Aerofoil lift characteristics

5.4 Calculation of aerodynamic load profile

5.4.1 Uniform inlet air flow conditions
To simulate the aerodynamic load exerted on a fan blade, a large number
of two-dimensional potential flow solutions are stacked to create a three-
dimensional blade. Figure 5.3 shows a fan blade modelled using these two-
dimensional elements. A setting angle is specified at the root of the blade
as well as at the tip with each of the two-dimensional elements rotated to
obtain a linear variation in blade stagger angle between the root and tip. For
comparison to the research performed by Bredell et al. (2006) on an eight-
bladed A-fan, the tip setting angle, γ t , was selected as 16◦ and the root setting
angle, γ r , as 36◦ . Additionally, the same fan diameter of 9.145 m and hub-tip
ratio of 0.153 was used.
0.5
0.4
0.3 y/c
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.8
0.6
0.4 0.5 0.4 x/c
0.6 0.7
r/R 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.2
1.1 0.0
Figure 5.3: Fan blade model consisting of several two-dimensional profiles
The blade’s motion through the air is simulated by adjusting the free
stream velocity, or relative velocity over the profile, U∞ , and its angle with
respect to the x-axis, α. These values are calculated using equation 5.4.1
and equation 5.4.2 and make use of the two-dimensional element’s radial lo-
cation, r, the rotational speed of the fan, Ω, and the inlet air flow velocity,
Uinlet . The simulation was set up using the parameters specified in Table 5.1
and total bending loads were calculated by multiplying the element forces
with each element’s radial position and summing the results.
q
2
U∞ = Uinlet + Ω2 r 2 (5.4.1)
Uinlet

α = arctan (5.4.2)
Ωr
Table 5.1: Simulation parameters
Parameter Value
Volumetric flow rate 650 m3 /s
Fan rotational speed, Ω 125 rpm
Air density, ρa 1.085 kg/m3
Air pressure, pa 101325 Pa
Number of two-dimensional elements 100
Number of panels per element 64
The total flapwise bending load for this case was calculated to be 5972 N·m
while the lagwise bending load was 1690 N·m. These values are in agreement
with the flapwise moment of 5723 N·m and 1800 N·m lagwise moment ob-
tained by Bredell et al. (2006). Any discrepancies between these values can
be attributed to geometrical differences in the creation of the aerofoil profile
and blade.
5.4.2 Distorted inlet air flow conditions and system effects

Measurements have shown that axial flow fans operate with distorted inlet
air flow conditions and cross flow at the fan inlet (Van Aarde, 1990; Muiyser
et al., 2014). The effects of distorted inlet air flow conditions on blade vibra-
tion have been investigated in Section 4.3, but it is difficult to quantify the
parameters governing these air flow distortions. As such, certain assumptions
were made in the creation of the aerodynamic simulations.
Distorted inlet air flow conditions were implemented by specifying two
separate air flow velocities, U0◦ and U180◦ , on either side of the fan. The air
flow at any other point was then linearly interpolated between these two
values. Furthermore, cross flow was introduced with the addition of a con-
stant cross flow velocity component, Ucross . The azimuthal positions of the
fan blade as well as the directions of the various velocity components are
illustrated in Figure 5.4.
For the uniform inlet simulation U0◦ = U180◦ = Uinlet and Ucross = 0 m/s.
Using the same parameters as in Table 5.1, distorted inlet air flow conditions
were then introduced by setting U0◦ = Uinlet and U180◦ = 34 Uinlet while keeping
Ucross = 0 m/s. The results for this simulation are provided in Figure 5.5
and show that the fan blade experiences increased loading in the flapwise
direction as the inlet air flow velocity decreases towards the 180◦ position.
This is expected as, when considering the blade stagger angle, increased inlet
air flow will result in a smaller angle of attack and coefficient of lift.
Top view Front view
90◦
0◦ /360◦ 180◦
U0◦
U180◦
270◦ Uc r oss
Figure 5.4: Blade azimuth angles and flow distortions
8500
Distorted
8000 Cross-flow
Flapwise bending load [N.m]
Bridge
7500
7000
6500
6000
5500
5000
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Rotational position [degrees]
Figure 5.5: Results of simulation with distorted inlet air flow conditions
The effect of cross-flow at the fan can be determined by setting U0◦ =

U180◦ = Uinlet and Ucross = 14 Uinlet . The results of this simulation are also shown
in Figure 5.5 and indicate that the flap-wise blade loading is lower when the
fan blade is moving in the direction of the cross flow (0◦ to 180◦ ) than when
it is moving against the direction of the cross flow (180◦ to 360◦ ). This result
agrees with the results of Hotchkiss et al. (2006) and equation 5.4.3 (White,
2006) that shows how higher relative air flow, vr , increases the lifting force,
Fl , on the fan blade.
1
Fl = ρa vr 2 ACl (5.4.3)
2
Finally, the effect of the bridge located downstream of the fan needs to be
considered. The fan bridge serves as a mounting point for the fan motor and
gearbox and partially obstructs the air flow downstream of the fan rotor. This
flow obstruction has been shown to affect blade vibration in Section 4.2. In
axial compressors upstream flow obstructions cause blade excitation by their
potential flow effects and wakes whereas downstream flow obstructions can
only cause blade excitation by their potential flow effect (Cumpsty, 1989).
The so-called ground effect exists when a body such as an aerofoil operates in
the vicinity of an impenetrable surface. This potential flow effect is modelled
using the method of images and causes the body to experience a pressure
distribution and lift that is different to that of the body operating in an infinite
flow domain. As shown in Figure 5.6 and Figure 5.7, if a source or vortex
is situated at a distance of h from a plane wall, the effect of the wall would
be the same as placing a second source or vortex at a distance of 2h from
the original. The challenge with simulating the fan bridge is that it is not
impenetrable, but does allow some degree of air flow to pass through. As
such, the bridge is modelled by introducing a reduction in air flow through the
fan at areas below the bridge. This is done by modifying the air flow of each
two-dimensional element so that it is an assumed 80% of the unobstructed air
flow at that position. This is in accordance with the air flow measurements
recorded by Venter (1990) at the inlet of a full-scale fan where it was shown
that the fan bridge does indeed cause a local reduction in air flow. Figure 5.5
also shows the aerodynamic loading exerted on the fan blade when there is a
2 m wide bridge located downstream of the fan, spanning between the 0◦ and
180◦ positions under ideal inlet air flow conditions. As desired, and expected,
the fan bridge has the effect of introducing additional loading spikes as the
blade passes underneath.
y y
h
h
x x
h h
Figure 5.6: Potential source near plane Figure 5.7: Potential vortex near plane
wall wall
Where Figure 5.5 only showed the force on the blade tip, Figure 5.8 shows
the element-wise lifting force as a function of radius and rotational position.
Here one can clearly see the effect of the distorted inlet air flow conditions
causing higher loading on the 180◦ side than the 0◦ side. The effect of the
bridge can also be seen spanning between the 0◦ and 180◦ position. The
effect of the bridge can also be seen in Figure 5.9 where the drag forces as a
function of radius and rotational position are displayed.
5.5 Full-scale blade parametrisation

To investigate the effect of various sources of blade vibration, the develop-
ment of equivalent models is required. As described in Appendix A, the fan
blade being investigated has a complex geometry and non-homogeneous ma-
terial properties. A finite element model of a similar blade has been created
by Jonson (2008) that includes accurate geometry and fibre layups. However,
such a model would be time consuming to create and it would be difficult to
investigate the effect of altering its characteristics. To be acceptable for the
purposes of this study, the model needs to have the same dynamic and static
characteristics of the full-scale blade, but does not need to be an accurate
geometric representation thereof.
90◦
135◦ 45◦ 200
175
Lifting force, Fl [N]

150
125
180◦ 0◦
100
75
50
225◦ 315◦ 25
270◦
Figure 5.8: Lifting force, Fl , due to distorted inlet air flow conditions as well as the
bridge effect as a function of radius and rotational position
90◦
135◦ 45◦ 28
24
Drag force, Fd [N]
20
180◦ 0◦
16
12
8
◦ ◦
225 315
4
270◦
Figure 5.9: Drag force, Fd , due to distorted inlet air flow conditions as well as the
bridge effect as a function of radius and rotational position
In order to create a simplified model of the full-scale fan blade a number

of its dynamic and static characteristics needed to be determined first. These
include the blade’s frequency response and damping as well as its static de-
flection under load.
5.5.1 Experimental setup

The setup shown in Figure 5.10 and Figure 5.11 was used to determine the
fan blade’s frequency response. As seen in Figure 5.12, the full-scale fan blade
was attached to a rigid mounting and excited in the flapwise direction using
a suspended electromagnetic shaker attached close to the tip of the blade at
the leading edge. A force transducer was included at the attachment point of
the stinger to determine the excitation force. Additionally, as shown in Fig-
ure 5.13, strain gauges were attached at the cylindrical neck of the blade to
measure bending in the flapwise direction and two piezoelectric accelerom-
eters were placed at the tip of the blade and midspan, respectively. Strain
gauges were used to measure the blade response to correspond with in situ
measurements as it was of interest to determine what the typical response
would be when strain is measured at the blade neck.
Figure 5.10: Full-scale blade in heavy structures laboratory
The force transducer was screwed into a brass fastener that was attached
to the surface of the fan blade with cyanoacrylate. To excite this relatively
stiff structure the shaker is suspended whereby at low frequencies its body
acts as the moving mass. This also prevents the brass fixture from being
pulled off the blade surface by high excitation forces. White et al. (2010)
performed a modal analysis on a 9 m long wind turbine blade using an impact
hammer instead of a shaker as the means of excitation. Additionally, the
researchers also made use of free boundary conditions by suspending the

blade with elastic chords. By making use of free boundary conditions one is
able to more easily validate an existing FE model. However, for the current
study the exact natural frequencies of the blade in its operational state was
required.
x
Elastic supports
Fan blade
Strain gauges
Shaker Accelerometers
Force transducer
Rigid support
Figure 5.11: Diagram of experimental setup
Figure 5.12: Suspended shaker setup

Figure 5.13: Strain gauges attached to neck of fan blade
5.5.2 Frequency response

To obtain the Frequency Response Function (FRF) of the fan blade, the shaker
was set to perform a sweep from 0 to 200 Hz over a period of 8 s. This sweep
was then repeated for 80 s and the FRF calculated. The results of this test
are shown in Figure 5.14. Here one can see that the blade’s first and second
natural frequencies are at 5.5 Hz and 17.5 Hz, respectively. One can also see
an additional peak at the very low frequency of 0.76 Hz which is due to the
natural frequency of the suspended shaker setup.
103 1.0
FRF magnitude [m/s2 /N or µm/m/N]
102
0.8
101
100 0.6
Coherence
10−1
0.4
10−2
10−3
Strain gauge 0.2
10 −4 Accelerometer (tip)
Accelerometer (mid)
10−5 0.0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 5.14: Blade FRFs obtained with suspended shaker

The peak at 0.76 Hz is accompanied by a drop in coherence and as such

further investigation into the low frequency response of the blade may be
warranted. However, the response of the blade at such low frequencies is not
of importance to the current study and as such will not be considered any
further.
5.5.3 Damping
By analysing the measured response of a fan blade and assuming that the
blade behaves in the same way as a damped single degree-of-freedom system,
the exponential envelope of amplitude decay can be used to determine the
structural damping ratio, ζ (Inman, 2014). Figure 5.15 shows the measured
response of a full-scale fan blade when excited by an impulse in the flapwise
direction. Strain gauges at the blade neck were used to measure the bending
which, for a cantilever beam, is linearly related to the tip displacement. From
the response it can be determined that the blade is vibrating at its first natural
frequency of 5.5 Hz and that as such the damping ratio of the first mode of
vibration can be determined.
Figure 5.15 also shows that the peak strains can be plotted on a logarith-
mic y-scale to produce a straight line. As the exponential decay of a damped
single degree-of-freedom system is given by the exponential part of its re-
sponse, shown by equation 5.5.1, the damping ratio can be found in a way
similar to using the logarithmic decrement by determining the slope of the
line fit through these peaks and dividing by the natural frequency. This fit
resulted in a damping ratio of approximately 0.05.
y(t) = yamp e−ζωn t sin(ωd t + φ) (5.5.1)
5.6 Simplified finite element fan blade model

Once the blade is parametrised, a simple finite element model of the same
blade can be created for further simulations. Swiegers (1989) created a FE
model of the same full-scale composite fan blade as is being investigated.
He compared his numerical results to measurements recorded on a full-scale
fan-blade mounted in a large steel frame and determined that the natural
frequency of the fan blade was approximately 6 Hz. The difference between
the model created by Swiegers (1989) and the one created for the current
investigation is that it is desired for the new model to be a simple represen-
tation of the full-scale model which can be used in further simulations. This
is similar to the work performed by Tibaldi et al. (2016) where the blades of
a 1.5 MW wind turbine are approximated by an analytical linearisation of a
finite element beam model.
300
200
Strain [µm/m]
100
−100
−200
−300
103
Peak data points
Linear curve fit
Strain [µm/m]
102
101
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
Time [s]
Figure 5.15: Measured response of the full-scale fan blade
5.6.1 Formulation
For a damped multiple degree-of-freedom system the equation of motion is
−
→ −
→
given by equation 5.6.1, where D is the nodal degree-of-freedom vector, R is
the load vector, K the stiffness matrix, C the damping matrix and M the mass
matrix of the system. The dynamics problem then becomes the definition and
solution of this equation of motion.
−→ −̇
→ −̈
→ − →
K D +C D +M D = R (5.6.1)
The simplified model of the fan blade can be constructed using one-dimensional
beam elements that each have an element stiffness matrix, k, given by equa-
tion 5.6.2 (Cook, 1995) with the element’s length, l, and its flexural rigidity,
E I. The degrees of freedom for each element are given by equation 5.6.3
where v1,2 are the transverse displacements of each end and θ1,2 the rota-
tions. By taking the beam’s end conditions into account and the effect these
have on certain degrees of freedom, the element stiffness matrices can be
used to construct the global stiffness matrix, K, for the entire blade.
12E I/l 3 6E I/l 2 −12E I/l 3 6E I/l 2

 
 6E I/l 2 4E I/l −6E I/l 2 2E I/l 
k= 3 2 3 (5.6.2)
−12E I/l −6E I/l 12E I/l −6E I/l 2 
6E I/l 2 2E I/l −6E I/l 2 4E I/l
−
→ T
D = v1 θ1 v2 θ2 (5.6.3)
To construct the damping matrix, C, Rayleigh damping was used. The
damping matrix is constructed using the stiffness matrix, K, mass matrix, M ,
and two coefficients, B1 and B2 , which were adjusted to provide the same
logarithmic decrement as the full-scale fan blade. Equation 5.6.4 shows the
equation used to calculate the damping matrix.
C = B1 M + B2 K (5.6.4)
The element mass matrix, m, for a one-dimensional beam element is given
by Equation. 5.6.5 (Cook, 1995). As with the global stiffness matrix, the
global mass matrix, M is constructed using the element mass matrices.
156 22l 54 −13l

 
ρAl  22l 4l 2 13l −3l 2 
m=  54 (5.6.5)
420 13l 156 −22l 
−13l −3l 2 −22l 4l 2
5.6.2 Undamped, free vibration and static deflection

To create a simplified model of the composite fan blade the flexural rigidity
needs to be determined without the use of complicated analyses. For un-
damped, free vibration, the nodal displacements vary sinusoidally with time,
−
→
as is shown in equation 5.6.6, where d is the vector of nodal displacement
amplitudes and ω is a natural frequency.
→ −
− →
D = d sin ωt (5.6.6)
By substituting equation 5.6.6 into equation 5.6.1and setting C = 0 and

→ −
− →
R = 0 , equation 5.6.7 is obtained. Mathematically, this is called an eigen-
value problem where the non-trivial solutions yield the natural mode shape,
−
→
di , and frequency, ωi , for the i-th vibrational mode.
−
→ − →
K − ω2 M d = 0 (5.6.7)

For a cantilever beam, the lowest three natural frequencies and modes
calculated using 100 elements are given by equation 5.6.8. These values cor-
relate well with those obtained using analytical methods such as Myklestad
or Rayleigh-Ritz (Meirovitch, 2001).
v v v
t EI t EI t EI
ω1 = 3.516 ω 2 = 22.03 ω 3 = 61.70 (5.6.8)
mL 3 mL 3 mL 3
The three lowest natural frequencies of the A-fan blade have been mea-
sured to be 5.96 Hz, 10.81 Hz and 19.51 Hz (Swiegers, 1989). It is not pos-
sible to match all of these frequencies with a beam modelled using constant
material and cross-sectional properties. However, it was discovered that dur-
ing operation the lowest frequency of approximately 6 Hz, which corresponds
to the first flapping bending mode of the blade, is dominant. As such, using
a blade mass of m = 84 kg and a length of L = 3.426 m, and the desired
frequency of ω1 = 37.7 rad/s, the flexural rigidity can be calculated to be
E I =0.786 × 10 6 N·m2 .
Furthermore, the static deflection of the A-fan blade tip when subjected
to a load of 1000 N was measured to be 0.22 m (Swiegers, 1989). When
using the previously determined flexural rigidity, the blade model exhibits a
deflection of 0.18 m when subjected to the same load. The reason for the
difference in blade tip deflection is due to the simplification of the blade as a
homogeneous beam.
5.6.3 Forced response

To determine the dynamic response of the structure, equation 5.6.1 needs
to be solved using any of a number of numerical direct integration algo-
rithms. The Newmark method of direct integration is implemented using
equation 5.6.9 and equation 5.6.10 where the constants were selected as
β = 14 and γ = 12 to obtain an unconditionally stable solution.
2
−
→ −
→ −̇
→ 4t −̈
→ −̈
→

D n+1 ≈ D n + 4t D n + 1 − 2β D n + 2β D n+1 (5.6.9)
2
−̇
→ −̇
→ −̈
→ −̈
→

D n+1 ≈ D n + 4t 1 − γ D n + γ D n+1 (5.6.10)
By rewriting equation 5.6.1 for time step n + 1 and substituting equa-

tion 5.6.9 and equation 5.6.10, equation 5.6.11 is obtained. This system of
−̈
→
equations can be used to solve for D n+1 which can subsequently be used
−
→ −̇
→
to calculate D n+1 and D n+1 using equation 5.6.9 and equation 5.6.10, re-
spectively. This solution can then be repeated for each time step in order to
obtain the blade’s dynamic response. To calculate the blade’s forced response
the use of the discrete-time transition matrix (Meirovitch, 2001) was also in-
vestigated. However, it was found that due to the large number of degrees
of freedom, the largest natural frequency resulted in an unreasonably small
acceptable time step.
2 −̈
→
M + γ 4t C + β 4t K D n+1 =

−
→ −̇
→ −̈
→

R n+1 − C D n + 1 − γ 4t D n

−→ 1 2 −̈→

−K D n + 4t Ḋn + − β 4t D n (5.6.11)

2
By applying an impulse load to the blade and observing the logarithmic
decay envelope of the response, it is possible to adjust the two coefficients,
B1 and B2 , which are used to create the damping matrix in equation 5.6.4.
Good correlation between the measured and simulated decay was found by
using B1 = 0.05 and B2 = 3 × 10−5 .
5.7 Response of a single fan blade to

aerodynamic loading
Once the aerodynamic load profiles have been determined as a function of the
blade’s rotational position, the simplified finite element blade model can be
used to verify that the response of a single blade to this loading is comparable
to that which was measured and shown in Chapter 3. The conversion from
aerodynamic loads as a function of rotational position to a time-dependent
force is accomplished by dividing the rotational position by the fan’s rota-
tional speed and repeating the resultant force for the duration of the simula-
tion.
5.7.1 Simulation results

Figure 5.16 shows the response of the finite element fan blade under the
combined effect of distorted inlet air flow conditions as well as the presence of
the fan bridge. Measurements are shown starting at a time of 26 s to allow the
system to reach steady oscillation. The excitation causes the blade to vibrate
at its own natural frequency of 6 Hz. There are also large loading peaks
present as the fan passes the 180◦ position and experiences the combined
effect of the reduced air flow and bridge impulse.
70
65
Applied load at tip [N]
60
55
50
45
40
35
K = K tuned
0.06
Dynamic tip displacement [m]
K = 1.1 × K tuned
0.04
0.02
0.00
−0.02
−0.04
180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0

Azimuth angle [degrees]
Figure 5.16: Aerodynamic loading and response of the fan blade to distorted inlet
air flow conditions and the presence of a fan bridge
Alternatively, Figure 5.16 also shows the response of a fan blade with
an increase in stiffness of 10% subjected to the same aerodynamic load. As
expected, the average tip deflection has decreased but the amplitude has in-
creased because the first natural bending frequency of this blade is an ex-
act multiple of the fan’s rotational speed. The blade’s first natural bend-
ing frequency is f n = 6.29 Hz which is almost exactly equal to 3Ω, where
Ω = 2.08 Hz, and as such resonance occurs due to the harmonics introduced
by the fan bridge. Other values for blade stiffness were evaluated where it
was found that increasing or decreasing stiffness had the inverse effect on the
amplitude and average tip displacement. However, unless the blade’s natural
frequency was equal to some harmonic of the rotational speed, no resonance
was observed.
5.8 Comparison to operational measurements

Figure 5.17 shows the FFT of the simulation results presented in Figure 5.16
using the blade model with K = 1.1 × K tuned . This result set was selected
because it most closely represents the measured response of the fan blade,
shown in Figure 3.5. As expected, there are peaks at frequencies equal to
once and twice the fan speed as well as a peak at the blade’s natural fre-
quency of approximately f n = 3Ω. This FFT exhibits peaks at the same fre-
quencies as the measured data which indicates that the identification and
implementation of the load inducing sources are equivalent to the full-scale
measurements. As with the measured results, there is a peak at the rotational
frequency of the fan, which can be attributed to the inlet air flow distortion,
as well as a peak at twice the fan’s rotational frequency due to the presence
of the fan bridge.
0.030
Amplitude of blade tip displacement [m]
3Ω ≈ f n
0.025
0.020
0.015
0.010
Ω 2Ω
0.005
0.000
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 5.17: FFT of simulation results with K = 1.1 × K tuned

The relative sizes of these peaks differ between the measured data, shown
in Figure 3.5, and simulated results. In the simulated FFT the peaks at once
and twice the fan’s rotational frequency are approximately the same size
where the measurements show that the peak due to the fan bridge is much
smaller. This indicates that in reality the bridge has a much smaller effect than
what was simulated and the 80% flow reduction factor could be adjusted ac-
cordingly. Similarly it can be deduced that by comparing the relative sizes
of the peaks at once and three times the fan’s rotational frequency in reality
the effect of the distorted inlet air flow conditions is much more prominent
and could also be adjusted. However, these values are heavily dependent on
the prevailing wind conditions during the measurement period and as such
one could realistically assume a large variation, as shown by the differences
between Figure 3.12 and Figure 3.13.
Chapter 6
Simulation of fan system

dynamics
6.1 Introduction
The main objective of the current study is the investigation of various aerody-
namic sources of vibration and their effect on fan system dynamics in order
to provide recommendations regarding various design parameters that would
minimise fan system vibration.
To determine the response of the entire fan system, a model was created
in the MSC SimXpert Motion workspace where MSC ADAMS is used as the
solver. The model consists of the fan bridge, motor, gearbox, shaft and rotor
and calculates the response of the entire system to aerodynamic loading of
the fan blades. The complete model is shown in Figure 6.1.
Gearbox
Motor
Bridge
Hub plate
Shaft
Fan blades
Figure 6.1: Model of the fan system
75
CHAPTER 6. SIMULATION OF FAN SYSTEM DYNAMICS 76
6.2 Fan blade model

A second simplified model of the full-scale fan blade was created for use in
the dynamic model of the fan system. It was decided to use MSC ADAMS
for the dynamic simulation of the fan system as it is capable of simulating
the dynamics of rigid bodies as well as flexible bodies such as the fan blade.
This is known as a flexible multibody dynamics simulation (Wasfy and Noor,
2003) and can be used to combine the vibration of the flexible fan blades and
bridge to determine the effect of changing various design parameters.
6.2.1 Discrete flexible links

In ADAMS flexible bodies can be modelled using either modal or discrete
flexibility (Kiviniemi and Holopainen, 1999). Modal flexibility is incorpo-
rated in the ADAMS/Flex module using the Craig-Bampton method (Craig
and Bampton, 1968). A modal neutral file (MNF) is generated in certain FE
packages and contains information regarding the nodal coordinates, eigen-
values, mode shapes and global body properties. ADAMS/Flex then incorpo-
rates the bodies described by MNF files into the complete system’s dynamic
simulation. The rigid body’s inertia characteristics are calculated using its
total mass, centre of mass and its inertia tensor. The behaviour of the body
during the dynamic simulation is then determined by considering the par-
ticipation of each mode based on its resonant frequency and the excitation
frequency.
Similar to Myklestad’s method for bending vibration of two-dimensional
beams (Meirovitch, 2001; Rao, 1991), discrete flexibility is a method in which
a flexible body is modelled using a number of lumped masses connected to
each other with massless beam elements (Kiviniemi and Holopainen, 1999).
As with the work done by Tibaldi et al. (2016), the beam elements used by
ADAMS are Timoshenko beams. This method is preferable to the modal flexi-
bility method when modelling rotating systems because non-linear dynamics
can be simulated with the connection of several linear elements.
Figure 6.2 shows an ADAMS Discrete Flexible Link (DFL) that is used to
model a flexible I-beam. This link has a rigid attachment to part A and a
flexible attachment to part B. To model a cantilever beam or a fan blade, the
end of a DFL can also be specified to have a free attachment (Mechanical
Dynamics, 2000). Figure 6.3 provides a visual representation of a massless
beam element of length L found in ADAMS. These beams are used to provide
a model with flexibility by transferring translational, rotational and shear
forces (s1 to s12 ) between its endpoints, denoted by I and J in the figure.
Part B
Parts
Fixed attachment
Flexible attachment
Beams
Part A
Figure 6.2: An ADAMS discrete flexible link (source: Kiviniemi and Holopainen
(1999))
y
s8
y s11
s10 s7
x
s2 I
s9
s5 x s12
J z
s4
s1 z
s6 s3
L
Figure 6.3: Massless beam (source: MSC Software (2012))

6.2.2 Description of fan blade model

The material properties and cross-sectional geometry of the fan blade model
were selected to be the same as the finite element fan blade to provide a blade
with similar dynamic characteristics as the full-scale fan blade. A single blade
is shown in Figure 6.4. The single blade is attached to a revolute joint that
only allows rotation about the z-axis at the same radius as the blade would
be attached to the fan hub.
Revolute joint
Tip load
Figure 6.4: Model of a single rotating blade
6.2.3 Blade model damping

When creating a DFL in ADAMS, the damping is specified in terms of a damp-
ing ratio for the entire element. However, in order to match the damping
characteristics of the full-scale fan blade it was found that the specified damp-
ing ratio cannot be equal to the damping ratio that was determined experi-
mentally in Section 5.5.3. To obtain the same response as the full-scale fan
blade, shown in Figure 5.15, a tip load of 1000 N was applied to the model of
a single blade and released to obtain the response shown in Figure 6.5. This
response was then used to calculate the model’s damping ratio and the DFL
damping ratio was then adjusted until the same calculated damping ratio as
the full-scale blade was obtained. As a result of this investigation the final
DFL damping ratio specified in ADAMS was 0.0005 while the experimental
response produced a damping ratio of approximately 0.05. The reason for
this is that in ADAMS the damping ratio is defined as the ratio between the
damping and stiffness matrices of a beam element.
40
30
Tip displacement [mm]
20
10
0
−10
−20
−30
−40
102
Peak data points
Linear curve fit
101
100
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Time [s]
Figure 6.5: Determination of blade model damping ratio
6.2.4 Blade natural frequencies

ADAMS/Solver contains a linear simulation that can be used to determine
the eigensolutions and mode shapes of a model (MSC Software, 2012). The
number of solutions is a function of the number of degrees of freedom and
as such the equation of motion of a complicated model, such as the one pre-
sented in this investigation, will be very computationally expensive to solve.
For a single blade the linear static simulation can be used to determine the
eigenvalues and their corresponding mode shapes for the model of a single
fan blade. Figure 6.6 shows the first three bending modes of the blade and
the corresponding natural frequencies. As expected, and desired, these mode
shapes correspond well to those of the analytical cantilever beam (Meirovitch,
2001).
1.0
f1 = 6.38 Hz
0.8
f2 = 39.80 Hz
0.6 f3 = 110.54 Hz
Normalised deformation
0.4
0.2
0.0
−0.2
−0.4
−0.6
−0.8
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
x/L
Figure 6.6: Blade model mode shapes
Alternatively, to determine the natural frequencies and modes of the com-

plete fan system, a different method will need to be used. Elliot and Richard-
son (1998) proposed a virtual experimental modal analysis to determine the
mode shapes of a satellite model created in ADAMS. The method works by
applying a force to a model that is the equivalent of a physical electromag-
netic shaker. This virtual shaker is then used to apply a sinusoidal force that
equally excites all frequencies within a specified range. This is known as a
sweep or a chirp function and is denoted by equation 6.2.1 where f is the
applied force, F the amplitude of the sinusoidal function and k is the rate
of frequency increase. This is also known as a linear chirp, because the fre-
quency increases linearly with time, t.
f (t) = famp sin(kt 2 ) (6.2.1)

The first 4 s of a linear chirp is shown in Figure 6.7. In ADAMS a linear
chirp is created using the SWEEP function. This function can be used to
specify the frequency range to sweep as well as how much time the sweep
should take. The FFT of a 200 Hz linear sweep is shown in Figure 6.8 and
indicates that all frequencies in the spectrum of interest is excited equally.
600
400
200
Force [N]
−200
−400
−600
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Time [s]
Figure 6.7: Linear sweep
101
100
Amplitude [N]
10−1
10−2
0 50 100 150 200 250
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.8: Auto power spectrum of linear sweep

The response of the tip of the ADAMS single blade model to a linear sweep
applied at its tip was used to create the FRFs for these locations and are
plotted in Figure 6.9. The sampling rate here was 500 Hz for a period of 60 s
and the FRFs clearly show the first natural frequency of the blade at 6.38 Hz.
The second natural frequency at 39.8 Hz is more highly damped.
102
101
FRF magnitude [mm/N]
100
10−1
10−2
10−3
10−4
0 20 40 60 80 100
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.9: FRF of single fan blade
The complex mathematical function describing a system’s FRF is denoted

by H(ω), the relationship between the excitation force, F (ω), and the re-
sponse, X (ω), and is given by equation 6.2.2.
X ( jω)
H( jω) = (6.2.2)
F ( jω)
It should be noted that the relationship described by equation 6.2.2 is a
very crude way of representing the relationship between a system’s trans-
fer function between an input force and its response. To determine a FRF
through experimental modal analysis, where there is generally some mea-
sure of signal noise, one would typically calculate the power spectral density
and cross-spectral density of the input force, F , and the response, X (Ewins,
1984). The real power spectral density of these measurements is given by
equation 6.2.3 while the complex cross-spectral densities are given by equa-
tion 6.2.4. In these equations F ∗ and X ∗ denote the complex conjugates of F
and X , respectively.
S f f (ω) = F (ω)F ∗ (ω) and S x x (ω) = X (ω)X ∗ (ω) (6.2.3)
S f x (ω) = F (ω)X ∗ (ω) and S x f (ω) = X (ω)F ∗ (ω) (6.2.4)
The transfer function can then be calculated as either H1 (ω) or H2 (ω),

denoted in equation 6.2.5.
S f x (ω) S x f (ω)
H1 (ω) = and H2 (ω) = (6.2.5)
S f f (ω) S x x (ω)
The accuracy of the FRF is then determined by calculating the coherence,

2
γ (ω), which is a statistical measure of energy transfer and reciprocity be-
tween the input force and response. The formulation of the coherence is
given in equation 6.2.6 where an accurate FRF will have a coherence value
approximately equal to 1 across the frequency range of interest.
H1 (ω)
γ2 (ω) = ≤1 (6.2.6)
H2 (ω)
However, as many of the FRFs calculated in this chapter as well as later
chapters deal with purely numerical models with no signal noise present, it is
unnecessary to consider the experimental approach that has been outlined.
Instead, unless it has been otherwise stated, to determine the FRF of a model
only the relationship denoted by equation 6.2.2 will be used.
6.2.5 Fan blade natural frequency convergence

The purpose of the current investigation is to determine the effect that chang-
ing various parameters has on the vibration of the fan system. As such, the
absolute accuracy of each body’s natural frequencies is not as important as
the ratio between the natural frequencies of various subsystems. However, it
is still important to determine whether or not the solution is independent of
the element size.
A convergence study was first carried out on the single blade model shown
in Figure 6.4. The number of elements in the DFL was increased from 10 to
100 in five element increments and the natural frequency of the blade com-
puted using a linear static analysis for each increment. The results of the in-
vestigation, shown in Figure 6.10, indicate that the blade’s natural frequency
has converged to two decimal places after approximately 70 elements. How-
ever, to speed up the computation it was decided to only use 30 elements for
each blade as this would result in an error of less than 2%.
7.0
Blade natural frequency, f n [Hz]
6.5
6.0
5.5
5.0
4.5
4.0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Number of elements
Figure 6.10: Blade natural frequency convergence
6.2.6 Centrifugal effects

To determine the effect of the centrifugal forces exerted on a fan blade dur-
ing rotation, the change in the first natural frequency of blade model shown
in Figure 6.4 is investigated at varying rotational speeds. Here the z-axis is
the axis of rotation and in order for the single blade to experience the same
centrifugal loading as it would when attached to the fan the origin is placed
at the same point as the shaft’s connection to the hub. A constant point load
of 1000 N is applied at the blade tip and the change in tip displacement is
observed as the rotational speed increases. Additionally, by observing the re-
sponse of the blade as the force is applied during standstill and subsequently
removed at operating speed, the increase in the blade’s first natural frequency
can also be determined. The results of the centrifugal effect test using the ini-
tial model parameters are shown in Figure 6.11.
The top graph shows that the force is applied after 5 s and removed again
after 25 s while the rotational speed increases from 0 deg/s to 720 deg/s be-
tween the 10 s and 20 s mark. As expected the tip displacement increases
when the force is applied and the blade oscillates at a frequency of 5.88 Hz
as a result of the step change. The tip displacement then decreases expo-
nentially as the rotational speed increases between the 10 s and 20 s mark.
Finally, when the force is removed after 25 s the step change causes the blade
to vibrate at a frequency of 6.45 Hz. These results indicate that unlike the fi-
1200 500
Rotational speed
1000 Applied force
Rotational speed [deg/s]
Applied force [N]

800
600
−500
400
200
−1000
0
20
0
−20
−40
−60
−80
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time [s]
Figure 6.11: Results of the centrifugal effect test
nite element model, the multibody dynamics simulation does indeed account
for the effects of centrifugal stiffening.
To determine the effect of centrifugal stiffening on the blade’s first natural
frequency, the procedure outlined in the preceding paragraph and illustrated
by Figure 6.11 was repeated for a number of operating speeds. The first
natural frequency of the blade for each case was then recorded and a curve
fit performed. These results are shown in Figure 6.12 where it can be seen
that the curve fit can be used to determine the operating natural frequency of
the fan blade for the range of operating speeds between 1.5 Hz and 6.5 Hz.
First natural frequency at operational speed, f o [Hz]

12
Simulated data points
11 Exponential curve fit
10
5
f o = e0.094Ω+1.66
4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Fan operating speed, Ω [Hz]
Figure 6.12: Centrifugal stiffening of the fan blade
6.2.7 Blade loading

The aerodynamic loads obtained using the panel method are incorporated
into the dynamic simulation by means of a large number of point loads ap-
plied across the span of every fan blade. Each point load is applied to a part
of the blade where its magnitude is calculated based on the part’s radial and
rotational position. The AKISPL function was used to interpolate between
values of the three-dimensional splines representing the lift and drag forces
exerted on each element. The loads used here are the same as those deter-
mined using the panel method in Chapter 5 and can be seen in Figure 5.8
and Figure 5.9.
6.3 Bridge
6.3.1 Structural components
Figure 6.13 shows the model of the fan system as seen from above with all
the DFL connections indicated by letters. The bridge is connected to ground
at points A, B, C and D while all the other points indicate the positions that
the links are connected to one another with fixed joints. The dimensions of
the bridge are presented in Appendix A.
To create a DFL, the material properties and beam cross-sectional ge-

ometry need to be specified. The exact material properties of the bridge’s
structural members are not known and as such a value of E =20 7 × 1 09 Pa
was selected for the Young’s modulus of elasticity with a Poisson’s ration of
ν = 0.29. As per the drawings of the bridge, the cross-sectional geometry of
the DFL beam elements was specified to be that of an IPE 450 I-beam, shown
in Appendix A. It was decided to omit the hand rails and walkway supports
as their structural influence was assumed to be negligible when compared to
that of the I-beams.
B C
J K
F G
N O
M P
E H
I L
A D
Figure 6.13: Top view of the fan system model
6.3.2 Motor, gearbox, shaft and hub

The motor and gearbox were created as rigid bodies and attached to each
other via a fixed joint at their interface. The gearbox was then attached to
the bridge at four locations with fixed joints. These locations were the mid-
points of beam sections MN, OP, NO and MP in Figure 6.13. The dimensions
and properties of the motor and gearbox are provided in Table 6.1 and were
determined from engineering drawings of the components.
Table 6.1: Dimensions of motor and gearbox

Dimension Value
Gearbox
Length in y-axis 0.925 m
Width in x-axis 0.67 m
Height in z-axis 0.55 m
Mass 1060 kg
Motor
Diameter 0.8 m
Height 1.963 m
Mass 1973 kg
The low-speed shaft was created as an ADAMS DFL with a length of

0.625 m and a diameter of 0.18 m. The material properties of the shaft were
selected to be the same as that of the bridge. To model the hub plate, a rigid
cylinder was used with a radius of 0.681 m and a thickness of 0.05 m.
6.4 Modal analysis of fan system model

6.4.1 Virtual experimental modal analysis
Figure 6.14 shows an FRF for a sensor placed at point I on the fan bridge,
measuring the displacement in the z-axis. The point load representing the
shaker was also placed at this location and configured to provide a linear
sweep between 0 and 100 Hz over a period of 20 s at an amplitude of 100 N
while the time step was selected as 0.005 s. The FRF was then calculated in
the same manner as outlined in Section 6.2.4.
Figure 6.14 shows five distinct peaks and several troughs below 10 Hz.
To determine the modes of vibration the bridge was excited by a sinusoidal
force through the shaker at each of these frequencies. The results of this
investigation are shown in Table 6.2 where the most prominent natural fre-
quencies are provided as well as the anti-resonance where the fan blades act
as vibration absorbers to the bridge.
Table 6.2: Natural frequencies and mode shapes of fan bridge

Frequency [Hz] Description of mode
2.4 Transverse bending in the x-direction
3.4 Torsional vibration
4.3 Transverse bending in the z-direction
5.9 Anti-resonance caused by blades acting as
vibration absorbers
6.4 Transverse bending in the z-direction due to
blade vibration
7.2 Transverse bending in the z-direction due to
blade vibration
10−1
Point I
10−2 Point J
Point K
10−3 Point L
10−4
10−5
10−6
10−7
0 2 4 6 8 10
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.14: FRF of the bridge structure
6.4.2 Convergence of natural frequencies with number of

elements
ADAMS determines whether or not a simulation has converged based on the
magnitude of an error value that is iteratively calculated at each time step.
Once the magnitude of the error is below a certain user-defined threshold,
the simulation continues. When performing a dynamic analysis with rigid
bodies this convergence criteria is sufficient. However, due to discretization,
when flexible bodies are introduced it becomes important to ensure that the
eigenvalues for each body are as accurate as necessary.
Mesh refinement is the FE procedure where the body’s mesh is repeatedly

refined until its results approach those of the corresponding mathematical
model. The computed natural frequencies of the FE model will be the upper
bounds on the natural frequencies of the mathematical model and will con-
verge from above with mesh refinement (Cook, 1995). However, as described
in Section 6.2, ADAMS DFLs are lumped parameter systems with solutions
similar to those obtained using Myklestad’s method (Meirovitch, 2001).
Hiatt (1995) compares the eigenvalues generated by the FE method and
Myklestad’s method to the exact analytical solutions of a helicopter rotor
blade. To perform the comparison, 15 and 50 element models were created
using the FE method and lumped parameter approach. It was found that the
50 element FE and lumped parameter models were able to approximate the
analytical natural frequencies with an absolute error below 1% up to at least
the tenth mode. In contrast, the 15 element lumped parameter model was
only able to accurately approximate the analytical frequencies up to the third
mode of vibration.
When creating an ADAMS DFL, it is necessary to specify the number of
elements that will constitute the link. For the current investigation it was de-
cided to create each link with the number of elements such that each element
is approximately 0.1 m in length. When connecting one DFL to another the
connection point is specified as the coordinate system representing the center
of mass of a part in the existing DFL. When the element size is refined the
unique identification (ID) of each part changes with respect to the amount of
elements in the link and as such the connection point changes based on the
new position of the part to which it is attached. This makes the process of
element size refinement very time-consuming.
As an initial estimation, the fan bridge element size was selected to be ap-
proximately the same size as the 0.1 m fan blade elements, resulting in a total
of 113 elements in the primary structural beams (AD and BC in Figure 6.13).
However, to show that the solution obtained using the model is independent
of the element size, a second model with a total of 20 elements, approxi-
mately 0.5 m long, was also created. This model is shown in Figure 6.15.
Following the same virtual experimental modal analysis procedure as was
applied to the model with 100 m elements, the FRF for the coarse model was
obtained and is also shown in Figure 6.16. When compared to the FRF of
the 113 element model it can be seen that the only difference is the upward
shift in the natural frequency for transverse bending in the x-direction from
2.4 Hz to 2.6 Hz. As such, it can be assumed that, like the blade’s natural
frequency, the actual value will be approached from above as the number of
elements comprising the primary structural beams, increases. As a result of
these findings, it was decided to continue use of the 113 element model due
to it providing better accuracy than the 20 element model while still being
acceptable in terms of simulation computational time.
Figure 6.15: Bridge model with 20 elements
10−2
20 elements
113 elements
10−3
10−4
10−5
0 2 4 6 8 10
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.16: Investigation of fan bridge convergence

6.5 Simulation of Test Case A

6.5.1 Simulation parameters
Due to memory limitations, concessions had to be made with regard to the
length of time that could be simulated versus the time step size. After iter-
ating with various settings to obtain a simulation time that is long enough
to reach a steady state response as well as having a time step small enough
to provide significant spectral information, the following parameters were
selected:
• Dynamic simulation
• Simulation time of 20 s
• Time step of 0.05 s
In accordance with what was measured(Muiyser et al., 2014), the speed

of the fan was increased from 0 to 120 rpm over 2 s. To achieve this, the
STEP5 function was used which is a ramp function that has a continuous
second derivative.
6.5.2 System response at operational speed

Furthermore, Figure 6.17 shows FFTs of the bridge and blade response dur-
ing operation. The response shows the fan blade vibrating at its own natural
frequency of approximately 6 Hz while also containing lower frequency oscil-
lations due to the effect of the distorted inlet air flow conditions and the fan
bridge. One can see that the spectral content of the blade’s response com-
pares well to what was measured and shown in Figure 3.5. The response
of the bridge has its largest peak at the frequency corresponding to the first
transverse bending mode of the bridge in the vertical direction. The first peak
at 2.4 Hz is due to first torsional mode. It can also be noted that the ampli-
tude of vibration of the fan bridge is a few orders of magnitude lower than
that of the blade tip, which is to be expected when comparing the respective
structural stiffness of these components.
6.5.3 The effect of operating speed and bridge stiffness on

blade vibration
As shown in Section 5.7, a fan blade will experience large vibrations when its
natural frequency is a multiple of the fan’s rotational speed. To investigate
the effect of altering the rotational speed of the fan, a number of simulations
were performed where the operating speed was increased from Ω = f n /4
to Ω = f n /1.5 and the root mean square (rms) value of the steady state tip
0.05
Bridge z-amplitude [mm] 0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.00
25
Blade tip z-amplitude [mm]
20
15
10
0
0 5 10 15 20
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.17: FFTs of the fan system running with distorted inlet air flow conditions
displacement recorded. The results of this investigation are shown in Fig-

ure 6.18 where the relationship Γo = f o /Ω has been introduced as the ratio
between the first operational natural frequency of the fan blade, f o , and the
rotational speed of the fan.
As expected, the results show a very strong correlation between the ro-
tational speed of the fan and the first natural frequency of the fan blade. In
this case the largest response is found where the fan is operating at a speed
equal to exactly half the natural frequency of the fan blade. In this case the
aerodynamic load due to the presence of the fan bridge causes resonance of
the fan blade. A second increase in the blade’s response occurs when the fan
is operating at exactly a third of the blade’s first natural frequency. At this
speed the harmonics of the distorted inlet air flow and bridge effects cause
the fan blade to resonate.
In addition to investigating the effect of changing the fan’s operating
speed, the bridge stiffness was also altered to determine whether it had any
effect on the magnitude of the blade’s dynamic response. For this purpose the
ratio Π = f n / f b was introduced where f b is the first natural frequency of the
bridge for transverse bending in the z-direction. To increase or decrease the
stiffness of the bridge the values for the Young’s modulus of elasticity of DFLs
EH and FG, as in Figure 6.13, were altered and modal analysis performed to
determine the new values for f b . The simulation was then repeated at the two
operating points previously identified as those where the blades experience
the most vibration. The results show that changing the stiffness of the fan
bridge has negligible effects on the vibration of the fan blades. The reason for
this is that due to the difference in stiffness between the blades and bridge,
the relative displacement of the bridge to that of the fan blade is negligible.
102
Rms of blade tip displacement [mm]
101
Π = 1.38
Π = 0.67
Π = 2.26
100
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Γ = f n /Ω
Figure 6.18: Tip displacement of fan blade at different operating speeds
Even though it has been shown that the stiffness of the fan bridge will have
no effect on the vibration of the fan blades, it is still important to consider
the effect that this parameter will have on other components of the system,
such as the gearbox. Figure 6.19 shows the displacement of the fan bridge
at different operating speeds as well as different stiffness levels of the bridge
itself. As expected, a less stiff bridge exhibits higher levels of vibration than
a bridge that has a higher stiffness.
6.6 Simulation of Test Case C

In addition to Test Case A, it was decided to only investigate Test Case C. The
reason for not simulating Test Case B, was that the fan system operates at a
point where Γ = 2.4 in Figure 6.18 and as such experiences very little blade
vibration, as shown by the measurements presented in Section 3.3.
10−1
Rms of bridge displacement at Point I [mm]
10−2
Π = 1.38
Π = 0.67
Π = 2.26
10−3
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Γ = f n /Ω
Figure 6.19: Displacement of fan bridge at different operating speeds
6.6.1 System configurations and simulation parameters

Test Case C consisted of a six blade and nine bladed fan that was evaluated at
the same location. Additionally, these fans both had the same value of Γ = 3,
which caused the blades to resonate. In addition to the number of blades, the
only difference between this and Test Case A is that a value of Π = 0.71 was
measured. Figure 6.20 and Figure 6.21 show the models for each of these
fan configurations. To create these models only the number of blades and the
bridge stiffness needed to be changed while the rest of the parameters could
be kept the same as that of the model representing Test Case A.
Figure 6.20: Six bladed fan system Figure 6.21: Nine bladed fan system
6.6.2 Results
Figure 6.22 shows the results obtained using the six and nine bladed models.
Tests were conducted at a single operating speed where Γ = 3 to replicate
the measured test case. However, the effect of bridge stiffness was also in-
vestigated here to determine the effect of an uneven number of fan blades on
bridge vibration.
N = 9, Π = 0.67 N = 6, Π = 0.67
N = 9, Π = 1.38 N = 6, Π = 1.38
101
Bridge z-amplitude [mm/s]
100
10−1
10−2
10−3
10−4
10−5
104
Blade tip z-amplitude [mm]
103
102
101
100
10−1
10−2
10−3
0 5 10 15 20
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.22: Spectral analysis of simulation for six and nine bladed fans
Figure 6.22 shows the results of four simulations where FFTs were per-
formed on the blade tip displacement as well as the displacement of the
bridge at point I. These tests were conducted with the six and nine bladed
models previously discussed with bridge stiffnesses of Π = 0.67 and Π =
1.38. One can see from the results that the blades are largely unaffected by
the changes in the number of blades and bridge stiffness. However, there is
a much larger difference in the vibration of the bridge when different num-
bers of fan blades are used. The most prominent difference between the six
and nine bladed fans is that the prominent component of displacement at the
blade passing frequency (BPF) is shifted. The six and nine bladed fans have
BPFs at approximately 12 Hz and 18 Hz. Apart from the expected changes in
compliance and natural frequencies due to the change in bridge stiffnesses
and mass, there are no prominent changes below 10 Hz that can be attributed
to the change in blade number.
Chapter 7
Simplified numerical analysis
7.1 Introduction
As shown in the preceding chapters, fan blade vibration is as a result of varia-
tions in aerodynamic loading brought about by the presence of the fan bridge
as well as distorted inlet air flow distributions. The objective of the current
study is to determine fan system design parameters for which this vibration
may be minimised. As such, it is necessary to model the entire fan system in
order to investigate the effect of changing said parameters.
When operating within a certain frequency and excitation limits, it may
be assumed that the modal contributions of higher mode shapes are mini-
mal when compared to the first bending modes of the fan bridge and blades,
respectively. As such, it was decided that as an initial approximation these
components could be modelled as separate single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF)
systems which can be combined to produce the complete fan system. This
chapter documents the creation of such a model as well as the results ob-
tained thereby.
7.2 Calculation of an equivalent aerodynamic

point load
The first task in modelling the fan system as a combination of SDOF compo-
nents is to determine the excitation force which will be acting on each of the
individual blades. Strain gauge measurements that have been recorded from
the neck of a fan blade during operation have been presented in Chapter 3.
However, the measured response of a fan blade includes the vibration of the
fan blade as a result of the aerodynamic loads and is as such not a good indi-
cation of what the absolute magnitude of the excitation forces are. As such,
it is required to determine the equivalent excitation force that would have
been exerted on a SDOF approximation of a fan blade to obtain the mea-
98
CHAPTER 7. SIMPLIFIED NUMERICAL ANALYSIS 99
sured response. This calculated load can then be used for the simulation of
the complete fan system.
7.2.1 Response of a single degree-of-freedom system to

periodic excitation
A single degree-of-freedom system excited by a force, F (t), has the equation
of motion given in equation 7.2.1 (Meirovitch, 2001).
mẍ + c ẋ + kx = F (t) (7.2.1)

If the excitation force, F (t) = k f f (t), is periodic over the period T it
can be expressed in the exponential form of the Fourier series as shown in
equation 7.2.2 where ω0 = 2π/T and C p are complex coefficients given by
equation 7.2.3.
∞
X
f (t) = C p e i pω0 t (7.2.2)
p=−∞
T
1
Z
Cp = f (t)e−i pω0 t d t (7.2.3)
T 0
However, equation 7.2.2 and equation 7.2.3 contain negative frequencies

and as such can be rewritten in the form of equation 7.2.4 where A0 is equal
to twice the average value of f (t) and A p are a set of complex coefficients
given by equation 7.2.5.
!
∞
1 X
f (t) = A0 + ℜ A p e ipω0 t (7.2.4)
2 p=1
T
2
Z
Ap = f (t)e−i pω0 t d t (7.2.5)
T 0
When the excitation, f (t), is harmonic, the response of the system, x(t),
can be expressed by equation 7.2.6 where G(iω) is known as the frequency
response.
x(t) = ℜ AG(iω)e iω0 t (7.2.6)

It then follows that by the principle of superposition the response of the

system to a harmonic excitation of the form given by equation 7.2.4 will be
given by equation 7.2.7 in which the frequency response for each harmonic
G p is given by equation 7.2.8 where ωn is the system’s natural frequency and
ζ its damping ratio.
 
∞
1 X
x(t) = A0 + ℜ  A p G p e i pω0 t  (7.2.7)
2 p=1
1
Gp = ω ω (7.2.8)
1 − (p ω0 )2 + i2ζp ω0
n n
7.2.2 Excitation reconstruction algorithm

Following the previous derivations, it becomes apparent that for a single
degree-of-freedom system one would be able to reconstruct the excitation
function, of the form given by equation 7.2.4, resulting in a certain measured
response if the system’s natural frequency and damping ratio is known. To
obtain the excitation function, it becomes necessary to fit a complex Fourier
series with P terms to the measured response, r(t), which is of the form given
by equation 7.2.7. This is done through a non-linear least-squares optimisa-
tion algorithm where the objective function, Q(t), to be minimised is given
by equation 7.2.9 and the variables are: a0 , a1 , b1 , a2 , b2 , . . . a P , b P , ω0 .
Q(t) = r(t) − 12 a0 − ℜ a1 + i b1 e iω0 t − ℜ a2 + i b2 e i2ω0 t −

. . . ℜ a P + i b P e i Pω0 t (7.2.9)

The reconstructed excitation, f r (t), is then given by equation 7.2.10 where

ap + i bp = Ap Gp .

 
P
a p + i b p i pω t

1 X
f r (t) = a0 + ℜ  e 0 (7.2.10)
2 p=1
G p
7.3 Excitation reconstruction results

7.3.1 Static test
To test the algorithm being presented on a full-scale fan blade’s response,
the previously described suspended shaker setup was used to excite the test
blade with a load that could be measured using the attached force transducer
(see Section 5.5) . The excitation reconstruction algorithm could then be ap-
plied to the strain gauge measurements to determine the excitation force.
Figure 7.1 shows the excitation, response and reconstructed excitation of the
full-scale validation test. The linear correlation between measured strain and
the applied force was obtained by placing masses up to 20 kg at the same po-
sition as the force transducer attachment and measuring the resultant strain.
25
20
15
Excitation [N]
10
5
0
−5
−10
−15
−20
30
20
Response [N]
10
0
−10
−20
−30
Reconstructed excitation [N]
20
15
10
5
0
−5
−10
−15
−20
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Time [s]
Figure 7.1: Full-scale validation results
For this test the shaker was provided with a square waveform signal at
a frequency at 1.8 Hz. As seen in the Figure 7.1, the shaker was not able
to provide the blade with the desired square waveform excitation. However,
the actual excitation was still periodic. This excitation caused the blade’s re-
sponse to be much larger than the initial excitation due to resonant effects.
By applying the excitation reconstruction algorithm a very good qualitative

representation of the original excitation force could be obtained. It is ex-
pected that the underestimation of the excitation force is due to the inability
of the static calibration to fully capture the relationship between a dynam-
ically applied force and measured strain. Nevertheless, this indicates that
the algorithm is indeed capable of reconstructing an arbitrary, periodic force
exciting a full-scale blade and as such it may be applied to measurements
recorded during operation of the fan.
7.3.2 Results of algorithm applied to blade loading

measured during operation
Figure 7.2 shows measurements recorded on single fan blade during opera-
tion at a full-scale facility during Test Case A. The rotational position is indi-
cated in degrees where the 0◦ position is the windward side of the fan (see
Figure 3.1) and the fan bridge extends from the 0◦ to the 180◦ position.
2.0
Bending load, "/"av g
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Reconstructed excitation, "/"av g
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180 0 180
Rotational position [degrees]
Figure 7.2: Response analysis of recorded measurements from Test Case A

The reconstructed excitation clearly shows the largest loading on the wind-
ward side of the fan with a smaller increase in loading on the opposite side.
The increase at the 0◦ position can be attributed to the effect of the distorted
inlet air flow conditions at the windward side of the fan.
Figure 7.3 shows the same reconstructed excitation plotted in polar co-
ordinates. This figure also includes the general shape of the downstream air
flow obstruction (bridge) as well as the fan’s rotation and the windward side
of the casing. As the reconstructed force is not periodic, the plot consists of
the reconstructed force for each revolution superimposed on one another to
provide a generalised loading band.
Windward side
90◦
135◦ 45◦
Bridge 1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
180◦ 0.4 0◦
225◦ 315◦
270◦
Fan rotation
Figure 7.3: Polar plot of reconstructed blade loading using measurements from Test
Case A
It can be seen that the blade loading increases as the fan approaches the
windward side of the fan. This agrees with the findings of Bredell et al. (2006)
and also validates the assumption that the peak present at f = Ω in the FFT
of the measured response is indeed as a result of the distorted inlet air flow
conditions. The direction of elongation of the plot would also indicate that
the direction of cross-flow may not have been directly perpendicular to the
edge of the ACC but instead at an angle of approximately 30◦ . Unfortunately
the wind speed and direction was only measured as five minute averages and
as such cannot be used for validation of instantaneous loading. Furthermore,
at approximately 135◦ there is a drop in the blade loading which can be at-
tributed to the fact that the fan blade is moving in the same direction as the
flow distortion. As such, the relative velocity is lower than it would be on the
opposite side of the fan (315◦ ) which results in a reduced bending load.
7.3.3 Analysis of Fourier series coefficients

Figure 7.4 shows the coefficients obtained from the measured response of the
fan blade during operation. In this case the ω0 term of equation 7.2.2 was
selected to be Ω/15 and as such one can see that the |a p + i b p | coefficients
show increases at once, twice and three times the fan’s rotational speed. It
was decided to select a smaller ω0 to obtain a better frequency resolution.
However, by selecting a smaller value for ω0 the reconstructed response is
no longer periodic over each revolution. For the analysis of the full-scale
measurements this is not a problem as one would not assume the excitation
forces to be exactly the same for each revolution.
0.5
0.4
|a p + i b p |
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
10
9
8
7
6
|G p |
5
4
3
2
1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0.12
0.10
|a p +i b p |
|G p |
0.08
0.06
|A p | =
0.04
0.02
0.00
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
p
Figure 7.4: Coefficient analysis

Further investigation of the coefficients shows that the |G p | terms attenu-

ate the Fourier series approximation at the blade’s natural frequency to pro-
vide the excitation terms, |A p |, that are only significant at the assumed excita-
tion frequencies of Ω and 2Ω. These correspond to the effect of the distorted
inlet air flow and the effect of the downstream flow obstruction, respectively.
Generally, a Fourier series approximation becomes more accurate with an
increasing number of harmonic terms, P. However, in the case of the current
investigation the approximation reaches a point where even a small change
in the approximated coefficients, a p and b p , could result in large errors of
the reconstructed excitation’s harmonic coefficients, A p . This is due to the
fact that harmonic frequency response terms, G p , decrease with increasing
harmonic, p, and as such division by a very small number causes large errors.
7.3.4 Alternative methods

To overcome the aforementioned shortcomings it is important to realise that
the |a p +i b p | coefficients shown in Figure 7.4 are the equivalent of an FFT and
the G p terms the equivalent of an FRF. By using an experimentally obtained
FRF of the full-scale blade instead of the theoretical frequency response of a
single degree of freedom system, one would be able to include frequencies
much higher than the current limit. This, when used in conjunction with an
FFT of the measured response, will provide a reconstructed excitation that
has a higher frequency range and better frequency resolution.
If the complex mathematical function describing a system’s FRF is denoted
by H( jω), the relationship between the system’s input, X ( jω), and the re-
sponse, Y ( jω), is given by equation 7.3.1. This is essentially the frequency
domain equivalent of equation 7.2.10 and shows that if H( jω) has been ob-
tained, either experimentally or analytically, it can be used to reconstruct an
excitation force from a measured response.
Y ( jω)
X ( jω) = (7.3.1)
H( jω)
However, when expanding to a system with more than one degree of free-
dom, the frequency response of the system can no longer be described by a
single relationship, H(ω). When there is more than one degree of freedom
there exists a matrix of frequency response functions describing the relation-
ship between the response, Yi (ω), and the excitation, X i (ω), at each degree
of freedom. For a three-degree-of-freedom system this relationship is denoted
by equation 7.3.2 where each frequency response function, H i j (ω), is taken
between an excitation force at point j and the measured response at point
i. This matrix of frequency response functions is symmetric for a linear sys-
tem where there is reciprocity between each set of excitation and response
points. For a system such as the fan blade where the load is distributed across
each degree of freedom and the output is only measured at a single point it
would be impossible to determine each of the contributing excitation forces
independently. The closest approximation that can be provided using a sin-
gle measurement location, such as the strain gauges installed at the neck of
the fan blade, is the calculation of a single equivalent excitation force applied
to one of the degrees of freedom. If a distributed load is required then the
system’s response will also need to be measured at multiple locations.
    
 Y1 (ω)  H11 (ω) H12 (ω) H13 (ω)  X 1 (ω) 
Y2 (ω) =  H21 (ω) H22 (ω) H23 (ω)  X 2 (ω) (7.3.2)
 Y (ω)  H31 (ω) H32 (ω) H33 (ω)  X 3 (ω) 
3
Ikonen et al. (2015) used a similar inverse technique to determine the

loading on the propeller blades of a polar research vessel by modelling the
ship’s shaft line as a lumped system and using its response to correlate mea-
sured torsional vibration to propeller loading. In such an investigation only
a single input is compared to a single output and as such a single transfer
function is sufficient. This is not the case when considering the fan blade
loading currently being investigated.
Finally, a variety of filters exist that can be used to attenuate signals in
certain ways. Most commonly, low-pass filters are used to attenuate high
frequency noise in a signal. Additionally, band-stop (notch) and band-pass
filters are used to either attenuate a signal within a frequency range or at-
tenuate everything outside of the specified frequency range, respectively. As
shown in the preceding sections, to reconstruct the excitation force from the
measured response of the system it is necessary to attenuate the response at
frequencies equal to the natural frequencies of the system in order to remove
the resonant response. As such, a filter can be designed to have a frequency
response that is the inverse of the system’s own frequency response. This
filter would then attenuate the system’s response at resonant frequencies.
A digital filter can be described by its transfer function in the z-transform
domain, G(z). The general form of such a transfer function is given by equa-
tion 7.3.3 where a and b are real coefficients and na and nb describe the
number of terms in the denominator and numerator, respectively.
b0 + b1 z −1 + · · · + bnb z −nb
Y (z) = G(z)X (z) = X (z) (7.3.3)
a0 + a1 z −1 + · · · + anb z −nb
When subjected to a unit impulse, δ(n − k), the output of a linear time-
invariant (LTI) system is equal to it’s discrete impulse response, g(n). This
response of the blade, can be measured and the discrete z-transform applied
to obtain the discrete transfer function, G(z). Similar to the proposed use of
digital filters, Hurst et al. (2015) made use of an electrical filter to correct
for the frequency response of a Kulite pressure transducer and as a result it
is recommended that this technique be further developed for the purpose of

aerodynamic load reconstruction.
7.4 Simulation of fan system vibration

To simulate the response of the fan system as a result of the previously calcu-
lated loads it was decided to make use of the numerical integration capabili-
ties of MATLAB/Simulink. The second order differential equations of motion
for each component is determined and solved using the ODE45 function. As
an alternative to the numerical integration of the second order differential
equations proposed in the current study, a state-space representation can also
be used (Sivák and Hroncová, 2012).
7.4.1 Conversion of fan blade and bridge to SDOF systems

To create a SDOF representation of a fan blade and bridge, effective mass
and spring stiffness values need to be determined. Firstly it is assumed that
the fan blade can be approximated as a cantilever beam of mass m and the
bridge as a simply supported beam of mass m with an additional point mass,
M at its center. If only the fundamental mode shape of each beam is con-
sidered, the simplification to SDOF systems is as illustrated in Figure 7.5.
This is a similar approach to the simplification of axially vibrating members
(Al-Thairy, 2016). Note that only three blades are included in this diagram.
However, the diagram and following formulations may be adapted to include
any number of blades.
For a massless cantilever beam of length L and flexural rigidity E I that
has a point mass, M , at its free end, the tip deflection, y, is given by equa-
tion 7.4.1 (Benham et al., 1996).
M g L3
y= (7.4.1)
3E I
According to Hooke’s Law, the force in a linear spring is equal to the prod-
uct of its stiffness and elongation. If the elongation is equal to the beam’s tip
deflection and the force is equal to M g, the equivalent stiffness of the beam
is given by equation 7.4.2.
3E I
keff = (7.4.2)
L3
If one now considers a cantilever beam with a mass m, the first natural
frequency is given by equation 7.4.3 (Meirovitch, 2001).
v
t EI
ωn = 3.516 (7.4.3)
mL 3
mbridge
E I0
x 0 (t)
F1 (t)
E I1
mblade x 1 (t)
x 0 (t) x 1 (t)
k1
F1 (t)
m1
c1
x 2 (t)
k0 k2
F2 (t)
m0 m2
c2 c2
x 3 (t)
k3
F3 (t)
m3
c3
Figure 7.5: SDOF approximation of fan system
Now, if the beam is converted to a spring-mass system where ωn = k/m,

p
the effective mass would be given by equation 7.4.4 from equation 7.4.2 and
equation 7.4.3.
meff = 0.2427m (7.4.4)

By selecting a blade mass, length and first natural frequency it is now pos-
sible to determine the SDOF effective mass using equation 7.4.4 and effective
stiffness using equation 7.4.5 (Benham et al., 1996).
keff = ω2n meff (7.4.5)

The same procedure may now be followed for the fan bridge. First con-
sider a massless simply supported beam with a concentrated mass at its cen-
ter. The deflection at the center is given by equation 7.4.6.
M g L3
y= (7.4.6)
48E I
As before, the effective stiffness is then given by equation 7.4.7.

48E I
keff = (7.4.7)
L3
Given that the natural frequency of a uniform, simply supported beam is
given by equation 7.4.8 (Meirovitch, 2001), the effective mass of the SDOF
approximation is given by equation 7.4.9. By specifying the mass of the
bridge and its first natural frequency, the bridge stiffness can be calculated
using equation 7.4.5.
v
t EI
2
ωn = π (7.4.8)
mL 3
meff = 0.4928m (7.4.9)
7.4.2 Differential equations of motion

Figure 7.5 contains the SDOF representation of the bridge and three fan
blades. In this case the bridge’s mass, stiffness and structural damping is
given by m0 , k0 and c0 , respectively. Similarly, the blade parameters are given
by m1 , k1 and c1 . For the fan blade the damping coefficient can be modelled
as a combination of structural and aerodynamic damping.
The equations of motion for the bridge and blade are given by equa-
tion 7.4.10 and equation 7.4.11, respectively.
m0 x¨0 + k0 x 0 + c0 ẋ 0 + k1 (x 0 − x 1 ) + c1 (ẋ 0 − ẋ 1 ) = 0 (7.4.10)
m1 x¨1 + k1 (x 1 − x 0 ) + c1 (ẋ 1 − ẋ 0 ) = F (7.4.11)

These equations may then be expanded to include any number of fan
blades, N . As shown in equation 7.4.12 the bridge’s equation of motion is
coupled to that of every blade. In contrast, the equation of motion of the
i-th blade, as shown in equation 7.4.13 is only coupled to the motion of the
bridge, and not the other blades.
N
X N
X
m0 x¨0 + k0 x 0 + c0 ẋ 0 + ki (x 0 − x i ) + ci (ẋ 0 − ẋ i ) = 0 (7.4.12)
i=1 i=1
mi ẍ i + ki (x i − x 0 ) + ci (ẋ i − ẋ 0 ) = Fi (7.4.13)
Note that a time delay is introduced in the aerodynamic force exerted
on each blade to account for the different rotational positions of each of the
blades. As such the force exerted on the i-th blade is given by f i (t) = f (t +
i∆t) where ∆t is determined based on the fan’s rotational speed.
7.4.3 Model creation

To solve the coupled equations of motion depicted by ordinary differential
equations, a model is created using MATLAB Simulink. For the fan bridge
and single blade the model is shown in Figure 7.6. In each of the coupled
loops the acceleration of the bridge or blade is integrated twice to obtain its
displacement. Writing equation 7.4.10 and equation 7.4.11 with the acceler-
ation as the subject of the formulae for ease of visualisation:
1
ẍ 0 = − k0 + k1 x 0 − c0 + c1 ẋ 0 + k1 x 1 + c1 ẋ 1 (7.4.14)

m0
1
ẍ 1 = −k1 x 1 − c1 ẋ 1 + k1 x 0 + c1 ẋ 0 + F (7.4.15)

m1
The top loop, representing the equation of motion of the fan blade, con-
tains a force input that was obtained directly from the force reconstruction
algorithm described in the preceding sections. The bending load presented
in Figure 7.2 is added as a repeating sequence which is altered by a trans-
port delay block in order to introduce the time shift, ∆t. It can also be seen
that the displacement and velocity of the bridge is used as an input for the
equation of motion of the blade and vice versa.
Once again, the formulation may be expanded to include any number of
blades where, as shown in equation 7.4.16, the equation of motion of the
bridge is coupled to each fan blade and, as shown in equation 7.4.17, each
blade is only coupled with the motion of the bridge. The visual model of the
system can then be expanded by adding loops for each extra blade couples
to the solver loop of the bridge. The model of a system containing eight fan
blades is shown in Appendix C.
N N N N

1 X X X X
ẍ 0 = − k0 + ki x 0 − c1 + ci ẋ 0 + ki x i + ci ẋ i
m0 i=1 i=1 i=1 i=1
(7.4.16)
1
ẍ i = −ki x i − ci ẋ i + ki x 0 + ci ẋ 0 + Fi (7.4.17)

mi
F1
Fan blade
x1 ẋ 1
ẋ 0 x0
Fan bridge
Figure 7.6: Simulink model of a bridge and single fan blade
7.4.4 Results
Simulations were performed using the eight bladed fan model provided in
Appendix C. Figure 7.7 shows the results obtained when varying the natural
frequency of the blade while keeping the rotational speed constant. The ra-
tio between the blade’s natural frequency and the fan’s rotational speed, Ω,
is given by the symbol Γ . The speed of the fan could not be altered as the
excitation force used for the simulation is linked to the rotational speed of
the full-scale fan on which the measurements were recorded. As a result, the
natural frequency of the blade was altered by altering the mass of the blade
and keeping the stiffness constant. It can be seen that the peak value of the
blade’s response increases dramatically when Γ is equal to integer values.
This is due to the harmonics of the reconstructed force exciting the blade.
Additionally, the bridge stiffness was altered to obtain different natural fre-
quencies which were then normalised by the rotational speed of the fan to
obtain the factor Π. Four natural frequencies of the bridge were investigated
that correlated to a bridge of varying stiffness. It was found that the stiffness
of the bridge does not affect the peak displacement of the blade. This is true
even when the natural frequencies of the bridge and blade are equal at Π = Γ
because the displacement of the much stiffer bridge is almost negligible when
compared to that of the blade.
103
Π = 2.25
Peak to peak tip displacement [mm]
Π = 1.5
Π=3
102
101
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Γ = f n /Ω
Figure 7.7: SDOF system results
7.5 Discussion of findings

By approximating the full-scale fan blade as a SDOF mass-spring-damper sys-
tem it is possible to calculate a single, equivalent load exerted on the fan blade
during operation. It was found that this load is approximately periodic and
is higher on the windward side of the fan. By also assuming that the bridge
can be modelled as a SDOF mass-spring-damper system it becomes possible
to use this equivalent load as an excitation force in a multiple degree-of-
freedom system. Analysis of this simplification of the fan system has shown
that the the bridge stiffness has no effect on the blade response and that
the most important design factor is the ratio between the fan speed and the
blade’s natural frequency, Γ . Blade response is at a minimum when the fan is
designed with a factor of Γ = 2.5 due to the harmonics of the aerodynamic
load at multiples of the fan speed exciting the blade.
These findings correlate well with that of the full multibody model inves-
tigated in Chapter 6, thus indicating that it may be used as a preliminary
design tool. However, the simplified approximation of the fan system has a
number of shortcomings. The first is that the frequency range of the excita-
tion force needed to be limited to not amplify higher frequency components.
If higher frequencies are included one would be able to investigate the ef-
fect of the Blade Passing Frequency (BPF) as well as higher vibration modes.
Secondly, forces that are out of phase may cause the bridge to experience a
mostly torsional vibration. This effect cannot be captured using the current
model.
Chapter 8
Conclusion
8.1 Summary of findings

As outlined in Chapter 1, an objective of the current study was to provide
insight into the vibration inducing sources of a large-scale cooling system fan
with the aim of being able to recommend a design methodology that will
decrease the dynamic loading of fan blades.
• Chapter 3 showed how rarely published full-scale measurements were

used to determine operational loading conditions of fan blades where
it was found that blades typically vibrate when the blade’s first natural
frequency is a multiple of the fan’s operating speed.
• Through analysis of the full-scale measurements it was hypothesized

that fan blade vibration is caused by the downstream fan bridge and
the distorted inlet air flow conditions. In Chapter 4 these two sources
of blade vibration are investigated experimentally. The results showed
that the distance between the fan rotor and the downstream fan bridge
as well as the bridge porosity affects the magnitude of blade vibration.
Additionally, it was shown that increased flow distortion at the fan inlet
causes higher levels of blade vibration as well.
• In Chapter 5 the experimental findings were used to create a potential

flow code coupled to a finite element formulation of the fan blade to
determine the effect of blade stiffness on its vibration. In this way it was
confirmed that blade loading increases dramatically when the blade’s
first natural frequency is a multiple of the fan operating speed.
• To investigate the effect of bridge stiffness on fan blade vibration the

dynamics of a complete fan system was simulated by making use of the
blade loading calculated using the potential flow code. A novel conclu-
sion is reached when, in Chapter 6, it is shown how operating speed
as well as bridge stiffness was altered with results showing that bridge
114
CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSION 115
stiffness has a negligible effect on blade loading. This is in agreement

with Cuerdon (2013), who states that excessive fan vibration cannot be
reduced by stiffening the fan bridge alone.
• Finally, in Chapter 7 it is detailed how a single equivalent load, as op-

posed to a distributed load across the blade, can be calculated using
the recorded full-scale measurements by simplifying a fan blade as a
SDOF system. Furthermore, it was shown that by coupling any num-
ber of SDOF blades and a fan bridge, results can be obtained that are
equivalent to those of the more complex multibody approach outlined
previously.
8.2 Design recommendations

To fulfil the aim of the study, which is to provide fan system designers with
recommendations or a procedure to reduce fan blade loading, a design method-
ology based on the preceding findings will be outlined in this section.
8.2.1 Fan selection and operation

The first step in the design process is to design, or select, an axial flow fan
based on the application. As shown throughout the current study, the most
important consideration here is to ensure that the blade’s first natural fre-
quency is not equal to any harmonic of the rotational speed. The reason for
this is that due to the distorted inlet air flow conditions and effect of the fan
bridge, the aerodynamic load exerted on the fan blade is not perfectly sinu-
soidal, but contains a number of harmonics when analysed in the frequency
domain.
Figure 8.1 shows how the preceding findings may be combined to create a
design region for fan design or selection, similar to a Campbell diagram used
for turbomachinery applications. As a result of the findings shown in Fig-
ure 6.18 and Figure 7.7, the red areas on the graph indicate regions where ex-
cessive blade loading may be experienced due to resonance of the fan blades.
These regions were created by adding bounds of ±10% to the f n = 2Ω line
and ±5% to the f n = 3Ω line. The relative sizes of the bounds were based on
the frequency values of the peaks shown in Figure 6.18 where significantly
reduced amplification will take place. The f n = Ω region was not included as
the simulations outlined in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 were not conducted for
this case.
Also shown in Figure 8.1 are the design points for Test Cases A, B and C.
Here one can again see that the high blade loads measured for Test Cases A
and C are due to the inappropriate ratios between blade natural frequency
and fan operating speed. It is recommended that blade designs be altered to
obtain a favourable natural frequency at the required operating speed. An al-

ternative solution would be to add an additional blade so that the rotational
speed of the fan can be reduced. However, such changes may influence the
aerodynamic performance of the fan and as such it is up to the fan manufac-
turer to decide whether it would be better to alter the fan blade structure, and
thereby move the design point vertically on Figure 8.1, or alter the operation
of the fan and move the design point horizontally.
10
9
Blade first natural frequency, f n [Hz]
Test Case A
6
5
Test Case C Test Case B
2
60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Fan speed [rpm]
Figure 8.1: Visual representation of design region for axial flow fans, indicating
areas where excessive loading may be expected due to resonance
8.2.2 Bridge design

In Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 it has been shown numerically that the stiffness of
the fan bridge has no effect on blade dynamics. However, it can be expected
that the increased motion of a less stiff fan bridge could have an adverse effect
on the gearbox. The investigation of the gearbox is not within the scope of
the current study and as such will not be considered further.
The experiments detailed in Chapter 4 indicate that the degree of down-
stream flow obstruction created by the fan bridge affects the magnitude of
blade vibration. As a result, it is recommended that the distance between the
fan rotor and bridge be maximised. Experimentation has shown a large drop
in vibration when this distance was increased from 0.1Dfan to 0.16Dfan (see
Figure 4.9). However, increasing this distance by extending the length of the
low speed shaft alone is not advised as this could exacerbate the torsional
vibration of the system. Figure 8.2 shows how the distance between the fan
rotor and bridge could possibly be increased by mounting the gearbox as low
as possible in the structure.
< 0.16Dfan
> 0.16Dfan
Figure 8.2: Design recommendation to increase the distance between the fan rotor
and the bridge by mounting the gearbox as low as possible in the structure (bottom)
as opposed to on top of the structure (top)
Finally, it is also recommended that the walkway of the bridge be con-

structed from a material that offers the lowest resistance to air flow. As shown
in Chapter 4, a bridge made of a solid material greatly increases the magni-
tude of blade vibration, especially when the fan rotor is placed close to the
bridge.
8.2.3 Design tools

In Chapter 6, a complete multibody simulation of the fan system was per-
formed to determine whether changes in bridge or blade stiffness will affect
the fan blade deflections. However, when performing the preliminary de-
sign of a fan system a first order approach may be used to investigate the
fan system dynamics. The results provided in Chapter 7, that were obtained
by using a SDOF approximation for the fan blade, correlate well to those
of the multibody simulations. It is therefore recommended that the fan sys-
tem’s simplified equations of motion be derived and solved during the design
phase to determine the combination of parameters that produce the lowest
magnitude of blade vibration.
8.3 Shortcomings of the current research

As stated in Section 1.5, the rationale behind the current research was to
analyse a complete fan system from a top-down perspective. This involves ini-
tially considering and analysing the fan system as a whole whereupon further
analyses would be conducted at component level. This research methodology
was selected based on the lack of literature available regarding the analysis
of fan system structural dynamics and has lead to certain simplifications of
the fan system. These simplifications have allowed for a first order under-
standing of the aerodynamic excitation mechanisms as well as their effects
on fan system dynamics. However, some of these structural and aerodynamic
simplifications could possibly not simulate the physics well enough for use as
a generalised design tool. For instance:
• The current panel method code does not account for flow separation
and as such cannot be used for fans operating in an exceedingly wide
range of inlet flow conditions.
• The simplified fan blade models do not allow for any torsional vibration
or the contribution of modes above the dominant first bending mode.
It is as a result of these identified shortcomings that recommendations

will be made for future improvements of the design methodology and tools
in the following section.
8.4 Suggestions for future work

In the preceding sections of this chapter it was shown that all the objectives of
the current study have been met. However, some areas have been identified
that could be improved or expanded upon and are discussed in this section.
8.4.1 Further collection and analysis of full-scale

measurements
One of the major challenges related to conducting full-scale measurements is
that the variables are often uncontrollable or even unknown, and therefore
not measured. This problem can be mitigated by recording measurements
over a very long period of time, in the hope that certain data sets will isolate
the effects of specific variables only. However, statistical approaches can be
used to analyse measured data more effectively than has typically been done.
An open source statistical programming language such as R (The R Foun-
dation, 2016) can be used to perform principle component analyses, where
statistically similar variables are clustered together, or multiple regressions,
where mathematical relationships between a set of independent variables
and a single dependent variable are determined. These techniques can be
used to determine relationships between wind conditions, plant configura-
tion and blade loading, or help understand if certain measurements are cor-
related sufficiently so that some sensors may be omitted. This technique has
been used by Soal (2014) to analyse the relationships between full-scale mea-
surements recorded on the SA Aghulas II polar research vessel.
8.4.2 Experimental investigation of fan installation effects

As mentioned in Chapter 2, wind screens such as those provided by Gale-
breaker Industrial (2016) have been shown by Maulbetsch and DiFilippo
(2015) to reduce blade vibration and improve fan performance. Owen and
Kröger (2010) numerically investigated the effect that screens have on ACC
performance, but not on fan blade vibration.
It is proposed that the effect of installation modifications, such as wind
screens or the turning inlet vanes proposed by Cuerdon (2013), be quanti-
fied through experimentation at the multiple fan test facility, shown in Fig-
ure 4.11. Strain gauges can once again be used to measure blade deflection
for a variety of installation configurations. The effect that the installation
modifications have on air flow should be determined through the use of Par-
ticle Image Velocimetry (PIV), similar to the work performed by Van der Spuy
(2011). By combining PIV and strain gauge measurements in this way one
would be able to attribute the level of blade vibration to specific inlet air flow
phenomena.
8.4.3 Large-scale simulation of plant operation during

windy conditions
In this study the aerodynamic load exerted on the fan blades was calculated
based on observations from full-scale and laboratory experiments. These first
order assumptions can be improved by obtaining a more accurate representa-
tion of the flow field at the fan inlet through simulations of a complete ACC,
as performed by Louw (2011), Owen (2010) or Liu et al. (2009)
Once the distribution of air flow at the inlet of a specific fan has been
determined during prescribed wind conditions the complete fan can be sim-
ulated to determine blade loads, similar to the work that has been performed
by Romano (2015). By using a highly detailed model of the fan Romano
(2015) was able to accurately simulate the inlet air flow distribution charac-
terizing the load experienced by the fan blade. As shown in the current study,
these loads can then be used as an excitation force to simulate the fan system
dynamics. In this way it would be possible to determine the effect that wind
and fan location has on system vibration.
8.4.4 Blade model improvement

The fan blade model used in the current study was created by approximating
it as a simple beam. In this way only the first natural frequency and corre-
sponding mode shape, which is assumed to be dominant, was matched to
that of the actual blade. Jonson (2008) created a similar fan blade by con-
sidering the fibre layups of the composite material. However, for the purpose
of fan system dynamic analysis, such an accurate model is not required. It
is therefore proposed that a model be created that has the same dynamic
characteristics as the full-scale blade, but none of the complexities involved
in the modelling of composite materials. This could possibly be achieved by
optimising the material properties of a three-dimensional beam to obtain the
same FRF as the full-scale blade.
Appendices
121
Appendix A
Fan system geometry
A.1 A-fan geometry

The fan that was selected for the purpose of this investigation is known as
the A-fan and has previously been modelled by Bredell (2005) and Conradie
(2010). This is a large diameter fan, currently installed at a power plant in
South Africa, that is 9.145 m in diameter and operates at a speed of 125 rpm.
The 8-bladed fan design has each blade attached to a steel hub with a set of
two U-bolts at its cylindrical neck. The way in which the U-bolts are used to
attach the fan blade to the hub is shown in Figures A.1 and A.2.
Figure A.1: Full-scale fan blade attach- Figure A.2: Full-scale fan blade attach-
ment ment as seen from below
These blades are constructed from a fibreglass (GRP) composite and weigh
84 kg. Each blade is approximately 3.8 m long and is shown in Figure A.3.
The blades are constructed in two halves using a combination of woven rov-
ings, chopped strand matt and unidirectional plies that fan outward from the
neck to provide the necessary strength by transferring the bending load to
122
APPENDIX A. FAN SYSTEM GEOMETRY 123
the blade neck. These two halves are then bonded together using an adhe-
sive paste with additional foam stiffeners to complete the blade.
Figure A.3: A single full-scale fan blade
3.892 m
0.722 m
4.573 m
Figure A.4: Fan blade dimensions

APPENDIX A. FAN SYSTEM GEOMETRY 124
A.2 Bridge
Each bridge is constructed from steel I-beam sections and is attached at either
side of the inlet bell-mouth. The bridges also have hand railings and cross-
members that are assumed to provide very little structural rigidity and the
walkways consist of a square grid. Figures A.5 and A.6 show the construction
of a full-scale fan bridge as seen from below.
Figure A.5: Full-scale bridge from below Figure A.6: Full-scale bridge from below
showing walkway and I-beam construc- showing I-beam construction and cross-
tion members
1.75 m 4.51 m
2m 1.2 m 2.7 m
11.32 m
Figure A.7: Fan bridge dimensions
Appendix B
Full-scale measurements
The current chapter provides the complete set of measurements recorded

for Test Case B described in Chapter 3. The flap- and lagwise strains, ",
normalised with respect to a reference strain, "ref , are provided for each set
of measurements as well as the wind speed and direction recorded from the
wind mast. Note that wind speed and direction measurements were only
recorded every five minutes and that data was occasionally lost due to a lack
of signal between the sensor installed on top of the wind mast and the receiver
at the ACC. Finally, strain gauge data was also occasionally lost as can be seen
in Figures B.2, B.3, B.5. The reason for this loss of data is unknown, but does
not affect the conclusions or analyses in any way.
125
APPENDIX B. FULL-SCALE MEASUREMENTS 126
9 S
8 Wind speed
SE
Wind direction
7 E
Wind speed [m/s]
Wind direction
6
NE
5
N
4
NW
3
2 W
1 SW
0 S
3.0
Dimensionless bending strain, "/" r e f
Flapwise
2.5
Lagwise
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
−0.5
09:45 10:00 10:15 10:30 10:45 11:00 11:15 11:30 11:45
Figure B.1: Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 1

9 S
8 Wind speed
SE
Wind direction
7 E
Wind speed [m/s]
Wind direction
6
NE
5
N
4
NW
3
2 W
1 SW
0 S
3.0
Flapwise
2.5
Lagwise
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
−0.5
11:45 12:15 12:45 13:15 13:45 14:15 14:45 15:15
Figure B.2: Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 2

9 S
8 Wind speed
SE
Wind direction
7 E
Wind speed [m/s]
Wind direction
6
NE
5
N
4
NW
3
2 W
1 SW
0 S
3.0
Flapwise
2.5
Lagwise
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
−0.5
10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00
Figure B.3: Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 3 (morning)

9 S
8 Wind speed
SE
Wind direction
7 E
Wind speed [m/s]
Wind direction
6
NE
5
N
4
NW
3
2 W
1 SW
0 S
3.0
Flapwise
2.5
Lagwise
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
−0.5
14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00
Figure B.4: Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 3 (afternoon)

9 S
8 Wind speed
SE
Wind direction
7 E
Wind speed [m/s]
Wind direction
6
NE
5
N
4
NW
3
2 W
1 SW
0 S
3.0
Flapwise
2.5
Lagwise
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
−0.5
19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30
Figure B.5: Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 3 (evening)

Appendix C
Single degree-of-freedom model
131
Appendix D
Panel method formulation
D.1 Velocity potential for irrotational fluid

motion
The source/vortex panel method is a potential flow solution fluid motion
that can be applied to a two-dimensional submersed body (Anderson, 2007).
Unless otherwise stated the following formulations were obtained from the
−
→
class notes compiled by Thiart (2010). A fluid motion, U = [u, v, w], is
irrotational if its vorticity, Ω, is equal to zero.
−
→ δu δv δw
Ω=∇× U = + + =0 (D.1.1)
δx δ y δz
Furthermore, if Φ(− →s , t) is a scalar function of time and space, then an
identity exists stating that the curl of the gradient of the scalar function is
equal to zero.
∇ × (∇Φ) = 0 (D.1.2)
By comparing equations D.1.1 and D.1.2, it becomes clear that for irrota-
tional flow there exists a scalar function, Φ(− →s , t), such that the velocity of
the flow is given by the gradient of Φ(−
→s , t). This scalar function is called the
velocity potential (Karamcheti, 1966; Raudkivi and Callander, 1975).
−
→
U = ∇Φ (D.1.3)
The principle of conservation of mass for an inviscid (zero viscosity) flow,
can be represented by the continuity equation presented in equation D.1.4.
δρ −→
+ ∇ · (ρ U ) = 0 (D.1.4)
δt
133
APPENDIX D. PANEL METHOD FORMULATION 134
This equation can also be expanded and written in the form shown in
equation D.1.5.
δρ −
→ −
→
+ U · ∇ρ + ρ∇ · U = 0 (D.1.5)
δt
Then, by introducing the total derivative operator, shown in equation D.1.6,
the continuity equation may be reduced to equation D.1.7. The total deriva-
tive denotes the time rate of change as observed while moving through space
with the local fluid velocity. It consists of the local derivative, δt
δ
and the
−
→
convective derivative, U · ∇.
D δ −
→
= + U ·∇ (D.1.6)
Dt δt
Dρ −
→
+ ρ∇ · U = 0 (D.1.7)
Dt
Finally, by substituting equation D.1.8 into equation D.1.6, the continuity
can be rewritten in terms of the velocity potential, Φ.
Dρ
+ ρ∇ · (∇Φ) = 0 (D.1.8)
Dt
D.2 Elementary velocity potential solutions for

incompressible flow
Through simple manipulation equation D.1.8 can be rewritten as equation D.2.1.
1 Dρ
∇2 Φ = − (D.2.1)
ρ Dt
For incompressible (constant density) flows, equation D.2.1 reduces to
the Laplacian of Φ.
∇2 Φ = 0 (D.2.2)
Laplace’s equation can be solved by means of separation of variables. The
general solution to equation D.2.2 is given by equation D.2.3 where the val-
ues of the constants of integration, A, B, C and D, as well as the separation
constant, λ are fixed for any specific problem via the application of the rele-
vant boundary conditions.
Aθ ln r + B ln r + Cθ + D

if λ = 0
Φ=
Ar λ sin (λθ ) + Br −λ sin (λθ ) + C r λ cos (λθ ) + Dr −λ cos (λθ ) if λ 6= 0
(D.2.3)
The general solution of the velocity potential can be used to create a va-
riety of elementary solutions. A line source of strength σ located at r = 0
can be created by setting λ = 0, A = C = D = 0 and B = 2π σ
. This solution
represents flow radiating from the origin.
σ
Φ= ln r (D.2.4)
2π
A line vortex of strength Γ at r = 0 can be created by setting λ = 0,
A = B = D = 0 and C = 2π Γ
. A line vortex situated at r = 0 represents
circulation about the origin.
Γ
Φ= θ (D.2.5)
2π
In Cartesian coordinates, the velocity potential for a line source and line
vortex are given by equations D.2.6 and D.2.7, respectively.
σ
ln x 2 + y 2 (D.2.6)

Φ=
2π
Γ y

Φ= arctan (D.2.7)
2π x
These elementary solutions may be superimposed and arranged within a
flow field to create solutions for flows about an endless variety of geometries.
D.3 Mathematical formulation of the panel

method problem
The panel method consists of solving Laplace’s equation for the velocity po-
tential in the region around the boundary surface S(x, y, t) of a 2-dimensional
body. This is done by first solving for the disturbance potential, Φ̂ = Φ − Φ∞ ,
where Φ∞ is the free stream potential.
For 2-dimensional flow the free stream potential is given by equation D.3.1
with U∞ (t) denoting the instantaneous free stream velocity, and α(t) the in-
stantaneous angle that the free stream velocity makes with the x-axis.
Φ∞ = U∞ (t) x cos α(t) + y sin α(t) (D.3.1)

It then follows that the free stream velocity vector is given by equation D.3.2.
−
→
U∞ = ∇Φ∞ = U∞ (t) cos α(t)− →
e x + sin α(t)−→

ey (D.3.2)
−
→
Once the disturbance potential has been calculated, the velocity field, U ,
can be obtained by adding the gradient of the disturbance potential to the
−
→
free stream velocity, U∞ .
−
→ − → ˆ
−
→
U = U∞ + U = U∞ (t) cos α(t)−
→
e x + sin α(t)−
→

e y + ∇Φ̂ (D.3.3)
The panel method problem then consists of representing the boundary

surface, S, with a large amount of line sources and vortices in such a way
as to simulate the flow around the 2-dimensional body. The velocity poten-
tial of each individual source/vortex is then superimposed to create the total
disturbance potential, Φ̂.
D.4 Disturbance velocity equation for lifting

bodies
Using equation D.2.6, it can be shown that the velocity potential of a source
located at the point (ξ, η), is given by equation D.4.1.
σ
Φ̂(x, y) = ln (x − ξ)2 + ( y − η)2 (D.4.1)

4π
These source terms can then be placed along the boundary surface, S,
to obtain the velocity potential due to the source term distribution. The ve-
locity of a continuous source term distribution along the surface is given by
equation D.4.2 where ds is an infinitesimal distance along the surface, S.
I
σ(ξ, η)
Φ̂(x, y) = ln (x − ξ)2 + ( y − η)2 ds (D.4.2)

S
4π
To allow for computation, equation D.4.2 can be discretized by approx-
imating the continuous surface, S, as N surface elements over which the
source strength is assumed to be constant.
N Z
X σi
Φ̂(x, y) = ln (x − ξ)2 + ( y − η)2 ds (D.4.3)

i=1
4π si
By switching to complex notation and denoting the general point (x, y)

as z = x + i y, and the location of the source (ξ, η) as ζ = ξ + iη, the velocity
potential of a source can be written in the form of equation D.4.4.
σ
Φ̂(x, y) = ℜ [ln (z − ζ)] (D.4.4)
2π
If the surface, S, is separated into N panel elements, the i-th panel element
extends from ζ1i to ζ2i and is inclined at an angle of θi to the x-axis. The
equation for a point, ζ, on the element, is then given by equation D.4.5.
ζ = s cos θi + i si + s sin θi (D.4.5)

Through differentiation and manipulation, the length of the panel, ds,

can then be given by equation D.4.6.
ds = e−iθi dζ (D.4.6)
Then, by substituting equations D.4.4 and D.4.6 into equation D.4.7, one
arrives at equation D.4.6 which shows that the relative contribution of each
element to Φ̂ can be obtained individually by calculation of each panel’s in-
fluence coefficient, CΦi , shown in equation D.4.7.
N Z ζ2i

X σi
Φ̂(x, y) = ℜ e−iθi ln (z − ζ)dζ (D.4.7)
i=1
2π ζ 1i
Z ζ2i
−iθi
CΦi = e ln (z − ζ)dζ (D.4.8)
ζ1i
−
→ˆ
The disturbance velocity, U , can then be obtained by calculating the gra-
dient of the disturbance velocity potential. In this way it can be shown that
the disturbance velocity is given by equation D.4.9.
N
ˆ dCΦi − dCΦi −

−
→ σi → e→y
X
U (x, y) = ℜ ex − ℑ (D.4.9)
i=1
2π dz dz
The velocity influence coefficient, CU i , can then be defined.
ζ2i
d CΦi dζ z − ζ1i
Z
−iθi −iθi
CU i = =e =e ln (D.4.10)
dz ζ1i
z−ζ z − ζ2i
These coefficients can be calculated individually and used to determine
σ
the source strengths, 2πi and subsequently used to calculate the velocity and
pressure at each element. However, for lifting bodies, such as an aerofoil,
one needs to consider that the preceding equations will result in a zero net
force on a closed 2-dimensional body. This is because the physical drag and
lift force exerted on such a body are due to the viscous effects, which are not
considered in this inviscid formulation. In order to introduce lift, a non-zero
value for circulation around the body needs to be specified. The value for this
circulation is obtained by considering that a conventional aerofoil has a sharp
trailing edge which requires a unique value of circulation for the flow to leave
the trailing edge smoothly. The implementation of this finite velocity at the
trailing edge is known as the Kutta condition and is applied with a constant
vortex distribution along the boundary surface, S.
From equation D.2.7, the velocity potential of a 2-dimensional vortex lo-
cated at the point (ξ, η) is given by equation D.4.11.
y −η

Γ
Φ̂(x, y) = arctan (D.4.11)
2π x −ξ
This equation can also be written using complex notation.
Γ
Φ̂(x, y) =
ℑ [ln (z − ζ)] (D.4.12)
2π
The integral equation for flow around a 2-dimensional lifting body can
then be obtained by extending the non-lifting case presented in equation D.4.2
by adding the potential of the continuous vortex distribution obtained using
equation D.4.11.
y −η
I I
σ(ξ, η) 2 2
Γ
Φ̂(x, y) = ln (x − ξ) + ( y − η) ds + ds arctan

S
4π S
x 2π
− ξ
(D.4.13)
Equation D.4.10 can then be discretized and used to calculate the dis-
−ˆ
→
turbance velocity, U . The velocity influence coefficients, CU i , can then be
substituted resulting in equation D.4.14.
N N
ˆ
−
→ Xσ
i −
→ − ℑ(C )e→ + Γ
−
X
−
→ + ℜ(C )e−
→
U (x, y) = ℜ(CU i )e x Ui y ℑ(C Ui )e x Ui y
i=1
2π 2π i=1
(D.4.14)
D.5 Boundary conditions

The surface boundary condition can be written in the form of equation D.5.1,
where − →
n denotes the unit vector normal to the surface, S, in the outward
direction and Un is the value of the velocity perpendicular to the body surface.
In the case of a solid boundary Un = 0.
ˆ →
−
→ −
→ →
U ·−
n = Un − U∞ · −
n (D.5.1)
The surface boundary condition is applied by substituting equations D.4.14
and D.3.2 into equation D.5.1 and applying the dot products between the ve-
locities and −
→
n . This results in equation D.5.2, which is valid for the j-th
surface element with CU i j exactly the same as in equation D.4.10.
N
X σi
ℜ(CU i j ) sin θ j + ℑ(CU i j ) cos θ j +

i=1
2π
N
Γ X
ℑ(CU i j ) sin θ j − ℜ(CU i j ) cos θ j

2π i=1
= U∞ (t) cos α(t) sin θ j − cos α(t) sin θ j − Un j (D.5.2)

Equation D.5.2 needs to be applied at each control point and as such re-
sults in a system of linear equations in which σ1 , σ2 , ...σN and Γ are the
unknowns. The Kutta condition is implemented by applying the finite veloc-
ity condition at the trailing edge. If the two panels adjacent to the trailing
edge are denoted as panel m and n, the Kutta condition can be described by
equation D.5.3, with −→s being the tangential vector.
−
→ −
→ −
→
U (x m , ym ) · −
s→
m = −U (x n , yn ) · sn (D.5.3)
By substituting equation D.4.14 into equation D.3.3, and then subsequently
substituting the result into equation D.5.3, one arrives at equation D.5.4.
N
X σi
ℜ(CU im ) cos θm − ℑ(CU im ) sin θm + ℜ(CU im ) cos θn − ℑ(CU im ) sin θn

i=1
2π
N
Γ X
ℑ(CU im ) cos θm + ℜ(CU im ) sin θm + ℑ(CU im ) cos θn + ℜ(CU im ) sin θn

+
2π i=1
= −U∞ (t) cos α(t) cos θm + cos θn + sin α(t) sin θm + sin θn (D.5.4)

Equations D.5.2 and D.5.4 provide a system of linear equations that can
be solved using a computer.
D.6 Computation of velocities and pressures

Once the source strengths have been calculated, the velocity at any of the
control points can be calculated by substituting equation D.4.14 into equa-
tion D.3.3.
−
→
U (x j , y j ) = U∞ (t) cos α(t)−
→
e x + sin α(t)−
→

ey +
N
X σi −
→ − ℑ(C )e −
→
ℜ(CU i j )e x Ui j y
i=1
2π
N
Γ X −
→ + ℜ(C )e −
→ (D.6.1)
+ ℑ(CU i j )e x Ui j y
2π i=1
The velocities calculated using equation D.6.1 can then be used to calcu-
late the pressure at each surface panel using equation D.6.2 with p∞ equal
to the free stream pressure.
δ
p(x j , y j ) = p∞ (t) − ρ Φ̂(x j , y j ) +

δt
1 2
ρ U∞ (t) cos α(t)2 + sin α(t)2 − U 2 (x j , y j ) (D.6.2)

2
Finally, each of these pressures can be used to calculate the force exerted
on the individual panels, which can then be used to determine the body’s lift
and drag characteristics.
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Investigation of Large-Scale Cooling System Fan

Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of

Supervisor: Dr Daniel Nicolaas Johannes Els

By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of

Date: . . . . . December 2016 . .

Copyright © 2016 Stellenbosch University

Investigation of Large-Scale Cooling System Fan Vibration

Ondersoek na grootskaal verkoelingsisteem waaier vibrasie

Lugverkoelde kondensator-waaiers funksioneer onder verwronge inlaat-vloei om-

• My supervisors for their unending support and patience

• Frank Weissbuch for his expertise, advice and sense of humour

Hierdie tesis word opgedra aan Susan en Maya.

List of Tables xii

3 Measurement of full-scale fan blade loading 24

3.3 Test Case B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4 Experimental investigation of fan blade vibration 39

5 Simulation of fan blade dynamics 55

6 Simulation of fan system dynamics 75

7 Simplified numerical analysis 98

A Fan system geometry 122

A.1 A-fan geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

B Full-scale measurements 125

C Single degree-of-freedom model 131

D Panel method formulation 133

List of References 141

1.1 Direct air-cooled condensing system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2.1 Wind screens installed at the Caithness ACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.1 Location of instrumented fan for Test Case A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.1 Schematic of the test facility adapted from Venter (1990) . . . . . . 40

5.1 NACA 1275 aerofoil profile and blade surface measurements . . . 57

6.1 Model of the fan system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

6.8 Auto power spectrum of linear sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

7.1 Full-scale validation results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

A.1 Full-scale fan blade attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

B.1 Measurements recorded for Test Case B on Day 1 . . . . . . . . . . . 126

5.1 Simulation parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

6.1 Dimensions of motor and gearbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

As the current study is multidisciplinary in nature the nomenclature will be

Chapter 3, 4, 8 & Appendix B

" Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]

Γ Ratio between fan blade natural frequency and rotational speed,

N Number of fan blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [−]

α Flow angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad ]

φ Phase lag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad ]

" Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ m/m ]

α Flow angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [ rad ]

ACC Air-Cooled Condenser

ADM Actuator Disk Method

BPF Blade Passing Frequency

CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics

DFL Discrete Flexible Link

FFT Fast Fourier Transform

FRF Frequency Response Function

FSI Fluid-Structure Interaction

MBD Multibody Dynamics

PIV Particle Image Velocimetry

PJM Pressure Jump Method

SDOF Single Degree-Of-Freedom