Improvement of Unstable Characteristics of an Axial Flow Fan by Air-Separator Equipment

The authors’ previous papers demonstrated that an air-separator is the most effective equipment among various different types for the improvement of unstable characteristics of an axial-flow rotor. Further experiments revealed that this equipment could eliminate the unstable characteristics thoroughly even for a build which originally accompanied a heavy rotating stall. This paper describes the geometric conditions to realize this and discusses its performance mechanism on the basis of the experiments showing the discharge distribution of the bleeding flow from the blade tip to separator passage as well as the pressure distribution in a blade passage at the tip section of the rotor. It is suggested that the equipment is equally useful at any stage of a multistage rotor.