Frequency Characteristics of Fluctuating Pressure on Rotor Blade in a Propeller Fan

A wavelet transform is introduced to analyze frequency characteristics of the fluctuating pressure on rotor blade in a propeller fan. The fluctuating pressure on the rotor blade is obtained by using the results of a large eddy simulation. The frequencies having high spectral peaks of the fluctuating pressure are determined by taking the time average of the local absolute modulus of the wavelet. The dominant frequency of the real-time pressure selected at the high pressure fluctuation region corresponds well to that of the fluctuating rotor torque and the experimental result of fan noise. It is mainly generated due to the unsteady behavior of the vortical flow, such as the tip vortex and the leading edge separation vortex, in the propeller fan. A frequency in the separation bubble region on the suction surface is higher than that of the dominant frequency caused by the vortical flow.