Design of Side Channel Type Regenerative Blower

A side channel type regenerative blower was designed by a one-dimensional performance prediction method and CFD. The design variables, such as the rotating speed, channel height, ratio of cross sectional areas between impeller groove and channel, channel expansion angle and number of blade were set by DOE. To examine the effects of these design variables, the overall performances of 17 different blower designs were estimated by using one-dimensional performance prediction method and analyzed by DOE. The pressure rise and efficiency at the operating flow rate and the flow rate difference between operating and best efficiency condition were selected as the main responses. The main effects of the design variables on the responses were discussed. The rotating speed, channel height and ratio of cross sectional areas between impeller groove and channel affected the overall performance of the blower. Finally, we decided the optimum blower through the results of optimization procedure. To verify the one-dimensional performance prediction method, we calculated the performances of base and optimum design blowers by commercial CFD software (ANSYS CFX-11). The numerical results clearly showed a typical circulation flow characteristics of a side channel type regenerative blower. The tendency of the performance improvement by using CFD was the same with that of the one-dimensional performance prediction method.