DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF FLOW
STRAIGHTNER
DEISGN AND FABRICATION PROJECT
Submitted by
M.NAVEEN CHOWDADRY (1308088)
G.ANEK REDDY (1308081)
K.PAVAN KUMAR (1308137)
P.V.S. AKHIL (1308127)
Under the guidance of
Dr T MICHA PREM KUMAR
In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree
Of
Bachelor of Technology
in
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
HINDUSTAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE
PADUR 603103
MAY 2016
DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF FLOW
STRAIGHTNER
DEISGN AND FABRICATION PROJECT
Submitted by
M.NAVEEN CHOWDADRY (1308088)
G.ANEK REDDY (1308081)
K.PAVAN KUMAR (1308137)
P.V.S. AKHIL (1308127)
Under the guidance of
Dr T MICHA PREM KUMAR
In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree
Of
Bachelor of Technology
in
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
HINDUSTAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE
PADUR 603103
MAY 2016
Padur- 603103
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
Certified that this project report titled “DESIGN AND
FABRICATION OF FLOW STRAIGHTENER” is the bonafied work
of NAVEEN CHOWDARY M (1308088), ANEK REDDY G (1308081),
PAVAN KUMAR K (1308137), AKHIL P V S (1308127) who carried
out the project work under my supervision during the academic year 2015-
2016
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR
Dr. G. RAVI KUMAR SOLOMON, Dr. T MICHA PREM KUMAR,
Professor, Associate professor,
Department of Mechanical engineering Department of Mechanical engineering
Hindustan Institute of technology Hindustan Institute of technology
and science and science
INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER
Name: _________________ Name: _______________
Designation: ____________ Designation: ___________
Project Viva voce conducted on___________
ABSTRACT
Throughout the history, many aerodynamicists work on the problem with axial
fan. Any way we know that axial fan is used to get air flow. But the flow air is
not uniform. It is important to have uniform flow in the test section of the axial
flow fan. And, how it is obtained is a problem always. One of the major
solutions is to use honeycombs, a honeycomb is a guiding device through which
the individual air filaments are rendered parallel flow.
But honey comb alone is not sufficient to get a uniform flow due to negative
pressure developed in the hub region. To avoid this problem a flow straightener
is designed along with honey comb and screen like demister. Where these two
components are combined with chamber with is used to settle down the air flow.
and this chamber arrangement is used to control the deviation and allowed to
get uniform flow
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
At the outset we would like extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. ELIZABETH
VERGHESE, Chancellor of Hindustan University for her endeavour in
educating us in her esteemed institute which has helped us works towards our
goal. We also express our sincere thanks to Dr. S. RAMACHANDRAN, Vice
Chancellor of Hindustan University and to Mr. ASHOK VERGHESE,
Director of Hindustan University. We also thank Dr. DARIUS GNANARAJ,
Dean (Mechanical Sciences) for his encouragement and inspiration that helped
us in the progress of our project work. We feel happy in bringing out this
project. We would like to thank Dr. RAVIKUMAR SOLOMON, Head,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hindustan University for having keen
interest in our project and providing us his support and valuable guidance. We
also thank Dr. T. MICHA PREM KUMAR, Professor (S.G), Department of
Mechanical Engineering for his guidance and valuable support. We also
pleased to express our king thanks to all Faculties and the Lab Assistants,
Faculty of Lab In-charge for their constant help and advice for completing our
project.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
No. No.
ABSTRACT iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
LIST OF SYMBOLS vi
LIST OF FIGURES vii
1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 LITERATURE SURVEY 4
3 CALCULATION AND DESIGN 5
3.1 CALCULATION AND DESIGN 5
OF SCREEN (DEMISTER TYPE)
3.2 CALCULATION AND DESIGN 6
OF SETTLING CHAMBER
3.3 CALCULATION AND DESIGN 9
OF HONEY COMB
3.3.1 Specifications 9
3.4 DESIGN OF ASSEMBLY PARTS 11
4 FABRICATION WORK 13
4.1 FABRICATION OF SCREEN 13
4.2 FABRICATION OF SETTLING 14
CHAMBER
4.3 FABRICATION OF HONEY 16
COMB
4.4 ASSEMBLY OF PARTS 18
5 CONCLUSION 19
REFERENCES 20
v
LIST OF SYMBOLS
SYMBOLS ABBRIVATION UNITS
Lx Length of cell mm
Dx Width of cell mm
l Arc length mm
r Radius mm
L Length of rectangle mm
B Breadth of rectangle mm
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE TITLE PG.NO
3.1 Screen 5
3.2 Settling chamber 8
3.3 Honeycomb cell 10
3.4 Honey comb structure 10
3.5 Flow straightener 11
3.6 Assemble part flow straightener 12
2D view
4.1 By using drilling machine, drilling 13
Holes to flange with 10mm drill bit
4.2 MIG welding for Demister 14
4.3 Welding of pieces 14
4.4 Screen 15
4.5 Settling chamber 16
4.6 Tacking of Honeycomb mesh 16
4.7 Honeycomb structure 17
4.8 Flow straightener 18
vii
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The main concern of a flow straightener is to reduce the deviation of air
flow and to get a uniform flow. In axial fan air flows in the random direction
and also negative pressure developed in the hub region where the output of the
air can’t be concentrated in one particular area. This is due to the rotation of
the rotor blades, the wind stream in front the leading edge of the blade gets a
swirling movement which effects the flow direction. In the proposed work a
flow straightener is used to make the wind flow stream line. So, to get uniform
flow, the straightener is used and efficiency of the air output is increased by
mixed flow of air and their by controlling the deviations. There are different
ways to control the air deviation, this is the one of the effective method to get
the uniform flow.
The usual arrangement in a closed-circuit tunnel is a stator (‘pre-
rotational vanes’) upstream of the rotor (the fan proper), designed so that the
swirl at exit is zero. In the case of an open circuit tunnel, swirl present in the
flow out of the fan may be dissipated before the flow reaches the intake, but a
remaining advantage of pre-rotation vanes is that the flow velocity relative to
the fan blades is larger than if the stator is absent or located downstream of the
fan.
An axial fan is used to get the air flowing through it. The blades of the
axial flow fans force air to move parallel to the shaft about which the blades
rotate. An axial fan consists of much fewer blades. Axial fans operate at high
specific speed i.e., high flow rate and low head. Due to fewer blades, they are
unable to impose their geometry on the flow, making the rotor geometry and
the inlet and outlet velocity triangles meaningless. In which air flows out in
random direction, with ununiformed velocity profile.
1
To get a uniform velocity profile range an open honeycomb structure is
attached to it. An open honeycomb structure is attached to it along with a
settling chamber and screen type mesh where screen is used to get the mixed
air flow and settling chamber is used to settle down the disturbance caused and
later it is passed through honeycomb structure to get uniform flow.
Honeycomb structure have the geometry of a honeycomb to allow the air to
flow with uniform velocity range. The geometry of honeycomb structures can
vary widely but the common feature of all such structures is an array of hollow
cells formed between thin vertical walls. The cells are often columnar and
hexagonal in shape. A honeycomb shaped structure provides a material with
minimal density. Today, a wide variety of materials can be formed into a
honeycomb composite.
Screens are look like a screen type. The main purpose of this structure
is to mix the flow coming from the axial fan. Screen contains two zigzag layers
one is in the longitudinal position another one is the axial position, this both
screens are look like a perpendicular to each other. Due to this zigzag
arrangements flow mixing takes place efficiently and some air flow takes place
in the hub region so that we can get flow of air over entire fan region.
The usual arrangement consists of a honeycomb followed by screens,
the number and K-value depending on the turbulence level requirements. The
honeycomb should be installed some way downstream of the wide-angle
diffuser exit, so that the flow static pressures and angles have had a chance to
become more uniform.
Honeycombs are effective for removing swirl and lateral mean velocity
variations, as long as the flow yaw angles are not greater than about 10o. Large
yaw angles cause the honeycomb cells to ‘stall’ which reduces their
effectiveness besides increasing the pressure loss.
For maximum overall benefit the cell length should be about 6-8times
its diameter. The cell size should be smaller than the smallest lateral
2
wavelength of the velocity variation (roughly 150 cells per settling chamber
‘diameter’, i.e. 25000 total, are adequate). The cross sectional shape of the
honeycomb cells is usually hexagonal, but sometimes square or triangular, the
shape being chosen mainly for ease in construction. Impregnated paper
honeycombs made for aircraft sandwich construction have more precise
dimensions than paper honeycombs and are to be preferred for high
performance tunnels and large tunnels where the wind loads may be expected
to be high. The cells of all honeycombs are often obstructed by burrs which
can be fatigued off with an air hose.
3
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE SURVEY
Andrew welsh [1], studied how to reduce the amount of turbulence in the
flow recommend a series of turbulence reducing screens. Large scale turbulence
in the flow and aids in dissipating turbulence to heat faster. The screens are
recommended to go from a low mesh size for the first screens to a high mesh
size for the final screens.
Ziqiong saho [2], Flow straightener is used at a recommended length of
a pipe diameter. The length of the settling chamber is taken as equal to the
diameter of the axial fan. Shorter length may be preferable. The effectiveness
of the straightener is more as a swirl reducer also confirmed.
The major components of wind tunnel is honeycomb, screens, and a
settling chamber. Each of these sections play a role in reducing the intensity and
scale of turbulence in the flow. However, high velocity air flowing through a
screen would induce a high pressure loss to the system and would Honeycomb
purpose is to reduce large scale turbulence in the flow and remove twist from
the incoming air. Honeycombs are also referred to as flow straighteners as in
the process of removing twist from the flow, the honeycomb redirects all flow
down the axis of the wind tunnel. Three typical styles of honeycomb is
hexagonal shape square shape and circle shape. The minimum number of
recommended cells is roughly 150 cells per inlet diameter, or 25,000 total cells.
I.E. Idel ’chik [3], the length of each cell should be 6-8 times the cell
diameter. The length of the honeycomb acts as a settling distance where small
scale turbulence dissipates into heat. However, if a honeycomb section is too
long, the boundary layer in each honeycomb cell grows and the pressure loss of
the wind tunnel system becomes substantial thus reducing the maximum test
section velocity.
4
CHAPTER 3
CALCULATION AND DESIGN
3.1 CALCULATION AND DESIGN OF SCREEN
(DEMISTER TYPE)
Basically demister is a device which is used to filter the moister content
in the air. By applying that concept here we can design a screen which will guide
the air flow over fan region so that negative pressure developed in the hub region
will be minimized as shown in Fig 3.1 and we can get uniform flow
High velocity of air flowing through a screen would induce a high
pressure loss to the system and would significantly lower the maximum
wind speed of the wind tunnel
Screen have been found to flex distances greater than 30cm.
Diameter of screen is 1100mm
Width of screen is 300mm
Fig 3.1 Screen
5
3.2 CALCULATION AND DESIGN OF SETTLING CHAMBER
1. Circumference of circle = 2𝜋𝑟
= 2 * 3.14 * 550
= 3454 mm
Arc length 𝑙 = 𝑟Ө
𝜋
𝑙1 = 𝑙3 = 550 ∗ 74 ∗
180
= 710.3mm
𝜋
𝑙2 = 𝑙4 = 550 ∗ 106 ∗
180
= 1017.54mm
𝑙1 + 𝑙2 + 𝑙3 + 𝑙4 = 3456𝑚𝑚
Where:
r = 0.5m
Ө = (angle*𝜋/180)
6
2. Perimeter of rectangle = 2(𝑙 + 𝑏)
= 2 (0.7+1)
= 3.4 m
Settling chamber is used to settle down the air that passed from the
screen which consists of lot of disturbances.so this large chamber is
designed in such way that it controls all disturbances and allows air to
settle down and to get uniform flow
7
Considering, length of the straightener is equal to diameter of the
straightener.
L=D
The circular part of the straightener is converged to rectangular section.
Larger side of rectangle is converged to arc length of 1000mm with
angle 110 degree and smaller side of rectangle is converged to arc
length of 700mm with angle 70 degree from center.
Fig 3.2 Settling chamber
8
3.3 CALCULATION AND DESIGN OF HONEY COMB
Lx/Dx = 8mm
Lx/15 = 8mm
Lx = 120mm
Lx-length of cell
Dx -breadth of the cell
The effectiveness of honeycomb, is reducing the swirl and turbulence
level in air flow. CFD is the most precise and economical approach to estimate
the effectiveness of a honeycomb we know that, it is very difficult to get uniform
flow without a guiding device like honeycomb. Random inlet conditions can
be converted into uniform flow. Air can enter the honeycomb from any direction
and at any level of turbulence can we converted into uniform flow. Therefore,
special domain is designed for introducing practical inlet condition
Metallic honeycomb structure has be used to design and fabrication of
flow straightener for axial fan
All welded constructions
Highly accurate cell construction
3.3.1 Specifications:
Cell size Depth Material
15mm 120mm Mild steel
9
Fig 3.3 Honeycomb cell
The total size of honeycomb structure is designed in rectangular section with
dimensions of 700mm*1100mm
Square cells are choosed due to less loss of coefficient
Fig 3.4 Honey comb structure
10
3.4 DESIGN OF ASSEMBLE PARTS
Fig 3.5 Flow straightener
11
Fig 3.6 Assemble part flow straightener 2D view
12
CHAPTER 4
FABRICATION WORK
4.1 FABRICATION OF SCREEN
3456mm length of mild steel sheet of width 300mm and length is
welded in the form of circular shape and two flanges Fig 4.1 of diameter
1100mm are welded on the both sides of the screen inside the screen plates
of 150mm width are zigzag arranged in one direction and another 150mm
plates are arranged perpendicularly to the opposite plates Fig 4.3 these
arrangement is welded with the help of MIG welding
Fig 4.1 By using drilling machine, drilling holes to flange with 10mm drill
bit
13
Fig 4.2 MIG welding for Screen
Fig 4.3 Welding of pieces
14
Fig 4.4 Screen
4.2 FABRICATION OF SETTLING CHAMBER:
For designing a settling chamber Fig 4.5, it is divided into four parts
where two ends are connected to smaller side of rectangle and other two
ends are joined to form a larger side of rectangle where smaller side of
rectangle is connected to arc length of 710.3mm and larger side is connected
to arc length of 1017.5mm
Mild steel sheet is taken where one end is hammered to form an arc
length of 710.3mmwhere other end is tapered to get a length of 700mm
Mild steel sheet is taken where one end is hammered to form an arc length
of 1017.5mmwhere other end is tapered to get a length of 1100mm
15
We need two pieces of each to get the settling chamber where two equal
components are kept parallel to each other where one end is welded to form
a circular diameter of 3456mm and other end is welded to form a rectangle
of dimensions 700 X 1100mm and a flange of 1200mm diameter is welded
to circular side of settling chamber
Fig 4.5 Settling chamber
4.3 FABRICATION OF HONEYCOMB:
Honeycomb structure is designed in the form of rectangular section 700
X 1100mm with a cell width of 15mm and length 120mm
To design a honeycomb structure we took stripes of mild steel, where
22 stripes are divided into equal parts with 4mm each and cutting has been
done with the help of hand wheel Fig 4.6 for each 4mm distance and
1100mm stripes are inserted in each of it to get a honeycomb cells Fig 4.7.
16
Fig 4.6 Tacking of Honeycomb mesh
Fig 4.7 Honeycomb structure
17
4.4 ASSEMBLY OF PARTS:
From Fig4.8 both the flanges of screen and settling chamber are joined
together with the help of bolt 10mm diameter and honeycomb structure is
welded to the rectangular portion.
Fig 4.8 Flow straightener
18
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
Flow straightener is used to get a uniform flow from axial fan. All the
assembling parts, screen, settling chamber, and honeycomb structure are
done perfectly to get the flow straightener. Output depends upon the mixing
of air in screen, settling of air settling chamber and cell size of honeycomb
structure. This component is attached to axial fan.
In conclusion, this course has provided each of us with valuable real life
skills that can be applied not only to our future careers, but also throughout
our life.
19
REFERENCES
1 Welsh, Andrew, "Low Turbulence Wind Tunnel Design and Wind Turbine
Wake Characterization" (2013).Theses and Dissertations. pg 10-15.
2 Ziqiong Shao, “Numerical and experimental evaluation of flow through
perforated plates”, (2001), pg 23
3 I.E. idel’chik, handbook of hydraulic resistance, co-efficient of local
resistance and of friction (1960) pg 130
4 H. L. Dryden and B. G. Schubauer, "The Use of Damping Screens for the
Reduction of WindTunnel Turbulence," Journal of the Aeronautical
Sciences, pg 221 1947.
20
