Patent Application
20240141920
The present invention relates to a fan shroud assembly, and more particularly, to a fan shroud assembly in which a fan, which forcibly blows air, is supported on an air-cooled heat exchanger and coupled to the heat exchanger, and a structure capable of reducing noise during a process of blowing air is provided.
In general, various air conditioning systems, cooling systems, and the like are installed in vehicles. The air conditioning system approximately includes cooling and heating modules for adjusting air a temperature, a humidity, and the like in an interior space in which a vehicle occupant is present. The cooling system includes modules for cooling an engine, a motor, and the like to prevent the engine, the motor, and the like from being overheated. These various modules are configured to implement desired cooling, heating, and refrigerating operations by transferring heat while circulating heat exchange media such as a refrigerant and a coolant.
The air conditioning system or the cooling system includes various heat exchangers. Among the heat exchangers, there is an air-cooled heat exchanger that cools a heat exchange medium therein by using outside air. As well known, heat exchange efficiency is improved as a velocity of air flowing to a core of the air-cooled heat exchanger. Therefore, generally, a fan shroud is coupled to a front surface of the air-cooled heat exchanger to forcibly blow air toward the core of the heat exchanger without allowing the heat exchange to be performed only by vehicle-induced wind. The fan shroud refers to a kind of device assembling component that stably supports a fan, which includes a hub and a plurality of blades, and a motor, which is configured to rotate the fan, and enables the fan and the motor to be coupled to another device.
Meanwhile, significant noise inevitably occurs during a process in which the fan forcibly blows air. More specifically, generally, noise with a pulsation waveform having a frequency, which is the product of the number of blades and the rotational speed, occurs when a fluid, which is transported by fluid transport blades in a fluid machine, passes through a cut-off portion of the fluid machine. The noise is referred to as a blade pass frequency (BPF) noise. The blades of the fan 200 correspond to the fluid transport blades, and the ventilation port 150 corresponds to a cut-off portion. The BPF noise significantly occurs even in the fan shroud assembly when the fan 200 operates.
Various studies have been conducted to improve a shape or structure of the fan shroud to reduce the BPF noise. As an example, Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-0111744 (“Fan Shroud for Reducing Noise”, Oct. 11, 2013) discloses a fan shroud which is illustrated in
In another example disclosed in “Reduction of the BPF Noise Radiated from an Engine Cooling Fan” (Yoshida K. et al., SAE 2014 World Congress & Exhibition, Apr. 1, 2014), an attempt has been made to reduce the BPF noise by changing a shape of the fan shroud.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above-mentioned problem in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a fan shroud assembly in which a baffle is selectively provided in some sections between a plurality of fixing members provided in a ventilation port of a fan shroud, thereby reducing deterioration in rigidity and durability of the fan shroud and effectively reducing BPF noise.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a fan shroud assembly including: a fan 200 including a hub coupled to a rotary shaft of a motor, and a plurality of blades provided on an outer peripheral surface of the hub; and a fan shroud including a peripheral part 110 configured to surround an outer periphery of the fan 200, a planar part 120 configured to face a heat exchanger, a ventilation port 150 formed in a central portion of the peripheral part 110 and configured to allow an airflow, which is generated by the fan 200, to pass through the ventilation port to blow air, a hub part 151 provided at a center of the ventilation port 150 and configured to accommodate and support the motor provided on a shaft of the fan 200, and a plurality of fixing members 152 connected to an inner peripheral edge of the peripheral part 110 and an outer peripheral edge of the hub part 151 and disposed radially around the hub part 151, in which when spaces between the plurality of fixing members 152 are referred to as unit ventilation spaces 155, a noise reduction means is provided in at least one selected from the plurality of unit ventilation spaces 155 to control a part of the airflow passing through the ventilation port. In this case, the noise reduction means may be a baffle 10 that blocks a part of an outer peripheral edge side of the unit ventilation space 155.
In addition, the baffle 10 may be formed such that one end thereof is disposed in the unit ventilation space 155 and connected to the inner peripheral edge of the peripheral part 110, and two opposite ends thereof are connected to the pair of fixing members 152 that defines two opposite boundaries of the unit ventilation space 155. In addition, the other end of the baffle 10 may be formed in a straight shape parallel to a normal direction at an outermost side point of one end.
In addition, the baffles 10 may be provided in the pair of unit ventilation spaces 155 disposed to face each other.
In this case, the fan shroud 100 may be formed such that an extension line, which is defined by the pair of unit ventilation spaces 155 disposed to face each other and having the baffles 10 respectively provided therein, is inclined with respect to a vertical direction and a horizontal direction.
In addition, the fan shroud 100 may be formed such that an angle of the extension line with respect to the vertical direction is smaller than an angle of the extension line with respect to the horizontal direction.
In addition, the fan shroud 100 may be formed such that the baffle 10 is provided in the unit ventilation space 155 disposed adjacent to upper and lower narrow portions where a circular shape of the peripheral part 110 and a rectangular shape of the planar part 120 overlap each other.
In addition, the fan shroud 100 may be formed such that the extension line is inclined in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the fan 200.
In addition, when a maximum distance between the two opposite ends is referred to as a baffle length 1 and a maximum distance between one end and the other end is referred to as a baffle width w, the baffle 10 may be formed such that a value of a ratio of the baffle width w to the baffle length 1 is within a range of 10 to 20%.
More particularly, the baffle 10 may be formed such that the value of the ratio of the baffle width w to the baffle length 1 may be within a range of 10.9 to 16.4%.
In addition, the baffles 10 may be provided in the pair of unit ventilation spaces 155 disposed to face each other, and the baffle width w of the baffle 10 provided at an upper side is larger than the baffle width w of the baffle 10 provided at a lower side.
More specifically, the baffles 10 may be provided in the pair of unit ventilation spaces 155 disposed to face each other, the baffle width w of the baffle 10 provided at an upper side may be set to a maximum value within the range of the ratio of the baffle width w to the baffle length 1, and the baffle width w of the baffle 10 provided at a lower side may be set to a minimum value within the range of the ratio of the baffle width w to the baffle length 1.
According to the present invention, the baffle is selectively provided in some of the sections between the plurality of fixing members provided in the ventilation port of the fan shroud, thereby effectively reducing the BPF noise. More specifically, in the present invention, the baffle, which serves as a barrier that blocks a part of the airflow blown to the outer peripheral edge side of the ventilation port, is provided in some selected from the sections between the plurality of fixing members provided in the ventilation port of the fan shroud in order to appropriately control the airflow, thereby effectively reducing the BPF noise by reducing interference between air and the peripheral part that is a peripheral structure of the ventilation port.
In the related art, a configuration in which a hole for additionally discharging air is formed in a fan shroud to control an airflow, is widely used to reduce BPF noise. However, because the hole formed in the fan shroud acts as a kind of flaw in consideration of a structure, there is a problem in that the hole degrades rigidity and durability of the fan shroud. However, according to the present invention, the component, such as the hole, which acts as a flaw, is not provided, and the baffle is further provided between the fixing members, thereby improving the structural rigidity. That is, collectively, the present invention may reduce noise and completely eliminate a risk of deterioration in rigidity and durability of the fan shroud.
Furthermore, in case that in the related art, an additional airflow space is formed in a narrow portion to reduce the BPF noise, and the additional airflow space protrudes, which causes a problem of unnecessary interference with the peripheral object at the time of packaging the cooling module. In contrast, the present invention does not cause the problem.
Hereinafter, a fan shroud assembly according to the present invention configured as described above will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In this case, when spaces between the plurality of fixing members 152 are referred to as unit ventilation spaces 155, the fan shroud 100 of the present invention has a noise reduction means provided in at least one selected from the plurality of unit ventilation spaces 155. More specifically, in the present invention, the noise reduction means is a baffle 10 that blocks a part of an outer peripheral edge side of the unit ventilation space 155. The baffle 10 controls a part of an airflow passing through the ventilation port 150, thereby reducing BPF noise caused by the airflow. That is, when a part of the airflow is deformed by the baffle 10 as described above, a shape of a flow, which causes BPF noise, may be changed from an original airflow, which makes it possible to reduce the BPF noise.
In the related art, a configuration in which a hole for additionally discharging air is formed in a fan shroud to control an airflow, is widely used to reduce BPF noise. However, because the hole formed in the fan shroud acts as a kind of flaw in consideration of a structure, there is a problem in that the hole degrades rigidity and durability of the fan shroud. In contrast, in the present invention, the configuration in which the noise reduction means is further provided in the unit ventilation space 155 is provided, such that the component corresponding to the flaw may be basically excluded, and the structural rigidity may be improved. Further, in the related art illustrated in
In the present invention, as described above, the noise reduction means may be provided in the form of the baffle 10 that blocks a part of the outer peripheral edge side of the unit ventilation space 155. That is, more specifically, the baffle 10 is provided in the form of a plate provided between the fixing members 152.
Hereinafter, a specific shape of the baffle 10 will be described in more detail.
As described above, the baffle 10 is provided in the selected unit ventilation space 155 to block a part of the unit ventilation space 155. More specifically, as clearly illustrated in
One end of the baffle 10 is formed as a curved line corresponding to the inner peripheral edge of the peripheral part 110, i.e., formed as a part of a circumference. As described above, the baffle 10 is formed to block a part of the outer peripheral edge side of the unit ventilation space 155. All the unit ventilation spaces 155 are collected and define the ventilation port 150. An outer peripheral edge of the ventilation port 150 substantially coincides with the inner peripheral edge of the peripheral part 110. In this case, the ventilation port 150 is a portion provided in the form of an empty space, and the peripheral part 110 is an actual component. Therefore, in consideration of the above-mentioned configuration, one end of the baffle 10 is described as being connected to “the inner peripheral edge of the peripheral part 110”.
The other end of the baffle 10 may be formed as a part of the circumference so as to correspond to one end of the baffle 10. However, to improve manufacturability and maximize an area that blocks the airflow, the baffle may be formed in a straight shape parallel to a normal direction at an outermost side point of one end.
Meanwhile, in the embodiment in
Hereinafter, an optimal arrangement of the baffle 10 will be described in more detail.
Because the baffle 10 is formed in the above-mentioned shape, the baffle 10 may control the airflow by blocking a part of the outer peripheral edge side of the unit ventilation space 155. In this case, the BPF noise reduction effect naturally varies depending on the location at which the baffle 10 is provided. Therefore, the baffle 10 needs to be properly disposed at an appropriate position.
As can be intuitively seen from the front view in
As described above, the baffle 10 reduces the BPF noise by changing a part of the airflow by blocking a part of the unit ventilation space 155. Therefore, the baffle 10 may be disposed at this position. Meanwhile, in case that the baffle 10 is provided at a position at which the BPF noise reduction effect is not high, only an adverse effect of unnecessarily reducing the airflow toward the ventilation port 150 occurs. Therefore, it is not necessary to install an excessively large number of baffles 10.
In consideration of these factors, as illustrated in
The optimal arrangement of the baffle 10 will be intuitively described below. As described above, the fan shroud 100 is generally formed in a shape made by combining the circular shape of the peripheral part 110 and the rectangular shape of the planar part 120. The largest amount of air is collected in upper and lower narrow portions where the circular shape of the peripheral part 110 and the rectangular shape of the planar part 120 overlap each other. It is known that the largest amount of BPF noise occurs in these portions. Therefore, in the present invention, the fan shroud 100 may be most preferably configured such that the baffle 10 is provided in the unit ventilation space 155 disposed adjacent to the upper and lower narrow portions.
However, in this case, to properly obtain the BPF noise reduction effect, the airflow needs to be changed in advance before the air passes through the upper or lower narrow portion. Therefore, the fan shroud 100 may be formed such that the extension line is inclined in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the fan 200.
Hereinafter, an optimal shape of the baffle 10 will be described in more detail.
According to the description of the shape of the baffle 10, one end and the two opposite ends, i.e., the three ends of the baffle 10 are respectively connected to the inner peripheral edge of the peripheral part 110 and the pair of fixing members 152. In this case, the peripheral part 110 is also formed in a circularly curved shape, the fixing member 152 is also formed in a curved shape, and the plurality of fixing members 152 is radially disposed. Therefore, a distance between the two opposite ends of the baffle 10 and a distance between one end and the other end of the baffle 10 are not determined as a single value. To determine a reference shape in consideration of these factors, a maximum distance between the two opposite ends of the baffle 10 is referred to as a baffle length 1, and a maximum distance between one end and the other end of the baffle 10 is referred to as a baffle width w.
As clearly shown in the graph in
With reference to the graph in
Meanwhile, as can be seen from
As in the optimal arrangement in
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and the scope of application is diverse. Of course, various modifications and implementations made by any person skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from the subject matter of the present invention claimed in the claims.
According to the present invention, the hole having the optimized shape is formed at the appropriate position on the fan shroud, such that a great effect of effectively reducing the BPF noise may be obtained. The compatibility of the hole is high because the hole is applied without changing the entire structure of the fan shroud in the related art, which is advantageous in manufacturing and producing the fan shroud.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2021-0016760 | Feb 2021 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2022/001729 | 2/4/2022 | WO |
