The present invention relates to a cross flow fan and an air conditioning apparatus equipped with the cross flow fan.
Cross flow fans are used in blowers of indoor units of air conditioning apparatus. A cross flow fan is equipped with an impeller that has a circular plate and plural blades disposed on the outer periphery of the plate.
Furthermore, in a cross flow fan disclosed in patent document 3, in order to suppress noise and an increase in motor input caused by flow separation at blade surfaces at times of high pressure loss, there is disclosed a cross flow fan blade shape which, in a case where the chord length is equally divided, forms a streamline that is asymmetrical with respect to the division line, with the ratio of a fan inner peripheral side cross-sectional area Sa to a fan outer peripheral side cross-sectional area Sb being equal to 1.3 to 1.6 (Sa/Sb=1.3 to 1.6), the ratio of a dimension Rb of a fan outer peripheral side distal end ft to a dimension Ra of a fan inner peripheral side distal end R being equal to 0.1 to 0.8 (Rb/Ra=0.1 to 0.8), and the blade cross-sectional thickness reaching a maximum in the center of the chord length. However, in a blade with this shape, the flow path width between adjacent blades does not gradually decrease from the inner peripheral side toward the outer peripheral side, and there are sections where the change in air flow speed is not stable,
<Patent Literature>
Patent Document 1: Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. S57-157788
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H2-169896
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent No. 4,583,095
Therefore, it is a problem of the present invention to provide a cross flow fan which, by increasing the flow path width between adjacent blades on the outer peripheral side of the fan to reduce the decrease rate of the flow path width between the adjacent blades from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades, reduces the change in air speed from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades and in which there is little power loss caused by the fan.
Across flow fan pertaining to a first aspect of the present invention is equipped with a support plate and an impeller that is formed by plural blades. The plural blades are disposed on the support plate portion at predetermined intervals. A lengthwise direction cross-sectional shape of each of the blades has a suction surface arc that forms a convex suction surface, a pressure surface arc that forms a concave pressure surface, an inner peripheral side arc that interconnects a first end of the suction surface arc and a first end of the pressure surface arc, and an outer peripheral side arc that interconnects a second end of the suction surface arc and a second end of the pressure surface arc. Furthermore, a radius of the pressure surface arc is great r than a radius of the suction surface arc, a radius of the inner peripheral side arc is greater than a radius of the outer peripheral side arc, and a region of maximum thickness of the blade is located in a position 40% to 60% from the inner peripheral side arc in the lengthwise direction. Furthermore, the blades are disposed in such a way that the inner peripheral side arcs are positioned on an inner peripheral side of the support plate and the outer peripheral side arcs are positioned on an outer peripheral side of the support plate, and a flow path width between the plural blades gradually decreases from the inner peripheral side toward the outer peripheral side of the support plate.
Because of this structure, the outer peripheral sides of the blades become thinner and the flow path width between the adjacent blades on the outer peripheral side of the fan can be increased. Furthermore, the flow path width between the adjacent blades gradually decreases across the entire length from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades, the change in air speed from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades can be reduced, and a lowering of the blowing performance of the fan can be suppressed.
A cross flow fan pertaining to a second aspect of the present invention is the cross flow fan of the first aspect of the present invention, wherein the suction surface of each of the blades is configured by a single suction surface arc Rs, the pressure surface is configured by plural pressure surface arcs Rp1, Rp2, . . . , Rpn, and radii rp1, rp2, . . . , rpn of the plural pressure surface arcs Rp1, Rp2, . . . , Rpn are each greater than the radius rs of the suction surface arc Rs.
In this case, the pressure surface of each of the blades is configured by plural arcs, and the radii of these plural arcs are each greater than the radius of the suction surface arc. Consequently, the decrease rate of the flow path width between the plural blades on the inner peripheral side of the blades becomes even smaller, the change in air speed from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades can be reduced, and a lowering of the blowing performance of the fan can be suppressed.
A cross flow fan pertaining to a third aspect of the present invention is the cross flow fan of the second aspect of the present invention, wherein the sizes of the radii rp1, rp2, . . . , rpn of the plural pressure surface arcs Rp1, Rp2, . . . , Rpn are such that rp2>rp3>. . . >rpn>rp1, and the thickness of each of the blades becomes smaller in stages from the region of maximum thickness toward the outer peripheral side arc Ro.
In this case, the pressure surface of each of the blades is configured by plural arcs, and the thickness of each of the blades becomes smaller in stages from the region of maximum thickness toward the outer peripheral side arc Ro. Consequently, the decrease rate of the flow path width between the plural blades from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades becomes even smaller, the change in air speed from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades can be reduced, and a lowering of the blowing performance of the fan can be suppressed.
A cross flow fan pertaining to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the cross flow fan according to any of the first to third aspects of the present invention, wherein a maximum percentage decrease of the flow path width between the plural blades is 20% or less.
An air conditioning apparatus indoor unit pertaining to a fifth aspect of the present invention is equipped with the cross flow fan pertaining to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a heat exchanger, and a casing.
An air conditioning apparatus pertaining to a sixth aspect of the present invention is equipped with the indoor unit pertaining to the fifth aspect of the present invention, an outdoor unit, and a pipe that interconnects the indoor unit and the outdoor unit.
The cross flow fan pertaining to the present invention can, by reducing the decrease rate of the flow path width between the plural blades, reduce the change in air speed from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blades and can suppress a lowering of the blowing performance of the fan.
FIG 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an indoor unit equipped with the cross flow fan pertaining to the embodiments of the present invention;
a is a schematic drawing showing absolute velocities between plural blades comprising a conventional crescent-shaped blade;
b is a schematic drawing showing absolute velocities between plural blades comprising the blade with the shape of embodiment 1;
a is a schematic drawing showing relative velocities between plural blades comprising the conventional crescent-shaped blade;
b is a schematic drawing showing relative velocities between plural blades comprising the blade with the shape of embodiment 1;
An air conditioning apparatus and an indoor unit that serve as an example of devices equipped with a cross flow fan pertaining to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below using FIG 1.
The air conditioning apparatus is an apparatus for supplying conditioned air to a room. The air conditioning apparatus is equipped with an indoor unit 1, which is attached to a wall surface or the like in a room, and an outdoor unit 2, which is installed outdoors.
An indoor heat exchanger is housed in the indoor unit 1, and an outdoor heat exchanger not shown in the drawings is housed in the outdoor unit 2. Furthermore, the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger are interconnected by a refrigerant pipe 3 to configure a refrigerant circuit.
The indoor unit 1, which is shown in
The indoor heat exchanger 8 and the cross flow fan 10 are housed in the indoor unit casing 5. Furthermore, air inlets 6 and an air outlet 4 for air conditioning are formed in the indoor unit casing 5.
The air inlets 6 are disposed in the upper portion and the front portion of the indoor unit casing 5 and are openings for taking room air into the inside of the indoor unit casing 5.
The air outlet 4 is disposed in the lower portion of the front surface of the indoor unit casing 5. Furthermore, a horizontal flap 7 is disposed in the neighborhood of the air outlet 4 in such a way as to cover the air outlet 4. The horizontal flap 7 is driven to rotate by a flap motor (not shown in the drawings), changes the direction in which the air is guided, and opens and closes the air outlet 4.
The indoor heat exchanger 8 comprises a heat transfer tube that is folded back plural times at both lengthwise direction ends and plural fins that are inserted from the heat transfer tube, and the indoor heat exchanger 8 performs heat exchange with air coming into contact with it, Furthermore, the indoor heat exchanger 8 functions as a condenser during a heating operation and functions as an evaporator during a cooling operation.
The cross flow fan 10 has a motor (not shown in the drawings) that serves as a drive mechanism and impellers 11 that are driven to rotate by the motor in the direction of arrow A1 shown in
In this way, the indoor unit 1 can, by driving the impellers 11 of the cross flow fan 10 to rotate, produce an air flow leading from the space S1 to the space S2, which is a flow wherein the air inside the indoor unit casing 5 flows through the impellers 11 orthogonal to an axis of rotation O of the impellers 11 and is blown out from the air outlet 4. Because of this, in the indoor unit 1, the air becomes sucked into the indoor unit casing 5 from the air inlets 6, and the air that has been sucked into the indoor unit casing 5 is cooled or heated as a result of passing through the indoor heat exchanger 8, travels through the impellers 11 of the cross flow fan 10, and is blown out to the outside of the indoor unit casing 5 from the air outlet 4.
Next, the configuration of the impellers 11 of the cross flow fan 10 will be described.
As shown in
Furthermore, the plural impellers 11 are disposed in a number more than one (here, nine) between the disc-shaped circular support plate 12 disposed on the first end face and the disc-shaped circular support plate 50 disposed on the second end face.
As shown in
In the present invention, other configurations excluding the configurations of the blades have the same structures in all of the embodiments, so in each embodiment below, description relating to other configurations will be omitted and only the configurations of the blades will be described.
As shown in
In the blade 100 pertaining to embodiment 1, the radius rp of the pressure surface arc Rp is greater than the radius rs of the suction surface arc Rs, and the radius ri of the inner peripheral side arc Ri is greater than the radius ro of the outer peripheral side arc Ro. That is, ri>ro and rp>rs. As a result, in the blade 100 shown in
As shown in
In the blade 200 pertaining to embodiment 2, the pressure surface arc Rp is configured by two arcs. As a result, compared to the blade 100 pertaining to embodiment 1 in which the pressure surface arc Rp is configured by a single arc, the thickness of the pressure surface on the outer peripheral side of the blade 200 is cut so as to become even thinner. As a result, the change in the flow path width from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blade 200 pertaining to embodiment 2 becomes even smaller than the change in the flow path width from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the conventional crescent-shaped blade 500, and the change in speed also becomes smaller. Specifically, as shown in
As shown in
In the blade 300 pertaining to embodiment 3, the pressure surface arc Rp is configured by three arcs. As a result, compared to the blade 100 pertaining to embodiment 1 in which the pressure surface arc Rp is configured by a single arc and the blade 200 pertaining to embodiment 2 in which the pressure surface arc Rp is configured by two arcs, the thickness of the pressure surface on the outer peripheral side is cut so as to become even thinner. As a result, the change in the flow path width from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blade 300 pertaining to embodiment 3 becomes even smaller than the change in the flow path width from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the conventional crescent-shaped blade 500, and the change in speed also becomes smaller. Specifically, as shown in
The present invention has a structure wherein the thickness of the pressure surface on the outer peripheral side of the blade of the cross flow fan is cut so that the flow path width between the plural blades gradually decreases from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the support plate. As a result, in the entire length direction from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side of the blade, air flow turbulence becomes smaller and it becomes difficult for flow separation to occur on the outlet side suction surface, As a result, power loss caused by the fan decreases.
Taking as an example a case where the outer diameter of the cross flow fan 10 is 90 ram, the rotational speed of the cross flow fan 10 is 1200 rpm, and the maximum flow rate is 10.4 m3/min, an experiment was performed in regard to absolute velocities and relative velocities of air flows between the plural blades on the outlet side of the cross flow fan 10 in a case that employed the blade 100 pertaining to embodiment 1 and a case that employed the conventional crescent-shaped blade 500, and the relationship between motor input to the cross flow fan and air volume was also investigated.
When the distributions of the fluid velocity vectors obtained from the result of calculating the air flows between the plural blades are expressed by an absolute velocity vector diagram, the result of employing the conventional crescent-shaped blade 500 is as shown in FIG, 12a, and the result of employing the blade 100 pertaining to embodiment 1 is as shown in
Furthermore, when the distributions of the fluid velocity vectors obtained from the result of calculating the air flows between the plural blades are expressed by a relative velocity vector diagram, the result of employing the conventional crescent-shaped blade 500 is as shown in FIG, 13a, and the result of employing the blade 100 pertaining to embodiment 1 is as shown in
Moreover, as for the results of the experiment in regard to the relationship between motor input to the cross flow fan and air volume, as shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201110346484.1 | Nov 2011 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2012/078353 | 11/1/2012 | WO | 00 | 4/28/2014 |