Lab 3, Professor John Hamilton, University of Arkansas Mechanical Engineering

November 24-28, 2014, Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA

Lab 3, Experiment

CENTRIFUGAL FAN FLOW FOR COOLING OF A DC MOTOR

Brad Daniel Gabe Nagel Stephen Hayden
Student, University of Arkansas Student, University of Arkansas Student, University of Arkansas
Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA

Larry Morgan
Student, University of Arkansas
Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this lab was to find the volumetric flow rate
of air moving through the motor by a 3D printed, centrifugal-
type fan.
A non-contact temperature sensor was used to measure the
temperature of the motor casing and motor shaft at steady state.
This process was used with and without the fan.
Thermocouples were used to determine the inlet and outlet
temperatures of the air while using the fan. A resistance
network was created to determine the heat lost from the motor.
Using an energy balance, the volumetric flow rate of the air was
found to be 2.79 liters per second at 2,904 RPM.
INTRODUCTION
Heat Transfer:
Heat transfer is the exchange of thermal energy between
objects. When dealing with heat transfer there are three types of
heat transfer conduction, convection, and radiation. For the
system analyzed in this experiment, heat losses due to radiation
were considered to be negligible.
Conduction:
Conduction is the transfer of internal energy within an
object or between two objects that are in direct or indirect
contact with each other. An example of heat conduction would
be when you place a skillet on a stovetop and turn it on. The
heat is then transferred from the stovetop to the bottom of the
skillet by conduction.
Convection:
Convection is heat transfer from one place to another by
the movement of fluids. An example of convection is blowing
on food to cool it. The heat is transferred from the food to the
air moving over it.
Pulse Width Modulation:
Pulse width modulation is a method of electric signal
generation. In many cases, PWM is used for digital to analog
emulation of a DC signal. The signal is generated with pulses
of a voltage of constant amplitude which is either absolute on
or off. The duty cycle describes the duration of the pulse. For
example, a signal with a duty cycle of 35% would result in the
voltage pulse being sustained for 35% of the signal’s period.
The duration of the period is determined by the frequency of
the PWM function.
In this experiment, the control board accepts a PWM signal
which it amplifies to control the DC motor. The control board
receives a constant PWM signal of 1.5V at 50% duty cycle
which is amplified to 90V at a duty cycle of 50%.
EQUIPMENT
 Stroboscope
 Arbitrary Function generator
 Non-contact temperature sensor
 Thermocouple (Lab Jack)
 Ice Water
 Oscilloscope with Ground Isolation Probe
 Power Supply / Motor Control Board
 DC Spindle Motor
 3D printed fan
NOMENCLATURE
Hz – Hertz (frequency)
PWM – Pulse width modulation
RPM – Rotations per minute
W – Watts
R1 – Resistance to heat flow through the motor body

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 R2 – Resistance to heat flow from the source to the air
T1 – Temperature of the motor shaft (heat source) Average Volts Average Amps Average Power (W)
Ts – Temperature of the motor shell surface 45 0.3 13.5
T∞ – f Temperature of the ambient air Ambient Air Temp: 22.2 (C)
– Overall heat transfer (Watts)
h – Convective heat transfer coefficient Without Fan With Fan
As – Surface area Surface Temp: 48.9 (C) Surface Temp: 24.5 (C)
– Heat transfer through the motor body (Watts) Shaft Temp: 48.9 (C) Shaft Temp: 28.1 (C)
– Heat transfer directly to the air (Watts)
Ambient Air Temp: 22.2 (C) Inlet Air Temp: 22.2 (C)
RTotal – Overall thermal resistance
Inlet Air Temp: 26.2 (C)
Tf – Film temperature
Nu – Nusselt’s Number Table 1 – Steady State Data
RaD – Rayleigh Number
Pr – Prandtl Number At steady state conditions, the system becomes
Gr – Grashof Number independent of time. Therefore, we must know that all energy
g – Force of gravity being put into the system must also be leaving the system. In
β – Volume expansion coefficient (1/K) this case, it is assumed that all of the energy is being dissipated
Lc – Characteristic length as heat lost to the surroundings.
ν – Kinematic viscosity In this system, it is assumed that heat can only be
T – Temperature (K) dissipated in two ways. The first assumption is that energy can
m – Meter travel through the entire body of the motor and be convected
K – Absolute temperature in Kelvin naturally to the surrounding ambient air. The second
– Mass flow rate assumption is that heat is lost directly from the heat source
Cp – Specific heat (motor shaft) to the air that is exposed to the heat source
ρ – Density through the open ends of the motor casing. A cross-section view
(seen below) of the motor allows a better visualization of the air
– Volumetric flow rate
flow in the system.
L – Liters
s – Seconds
n – Speed (RPM)

PROCEDURE
1. Power the function generator and set it to output a
square wave function, 1.5 volts peak to peak, with
a voltage offset of .75 volts at 50% duty cycle.
The frequency is to be set at 20 Hz.
2. Leaving the power supply unplugged, connect the
spindle motor into the motor control board. Figure 1 – Air Flow
3. Plug in the motor control board to send power to
the motor. This assumption allows all of the energy in the system to
4. Allow the temperature of the motor shaft and be accounted for in an ideal model. To approach this problem, a
casing to reach steady state, measure and record resistive network will be utilized to represent the resistance to
temperatures using a non-contact thermometer. energy transferred between the heat source and the
5. Disconnect the function generator from the power surroundings.
supply to stop the motor.
6. Put the Fan on the spindle shaft, then reconnect
the function generator and repeat steps 4-6.
7. Using an oscilloscope and a ground isolation
probe, measure and record the voltage and current
for 50% duty cycle to determine the motor power.
8. Perform the energy balance analysis for the
system at steady state as described in the
following method.

The following table shows the steady state conditions both

with and without the fan being used.

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 Figure 2 – Thermal Resistance Model
In the picture above, R1 represents the resistance of heat
conduction traveling through the body of the motor as well as
convecting naturally to the ambient air. R2 represents the
resistance of convective heat transfer directly from the heat
source to the surroundings through the open ends of the motor
shell. The resulting resistive network is configured in parallel.
The heat transfer can be determined with the following
equations for a resistance model.
The temperature used in Equation 1.5 must be an absolute
temperature.
After calculating Rayleigh’s Number and confirming that it
is within the necessary parameters, the correlation for Nusselt’s
Number may also be calculated. The resulting value will be
used to determine the convective heat transfer coefficient, h.

For these correlations Lc is the diameter of the cylinder. The

convective heat transfer coefficient, h can be determined as…

Based on the values in Table 1, the preceding equations

rendered the following calculations for the steady state
conditions without the fan.

Without the Fan:

By accounting for all of the heat lost in the system, the Without Spindle Fan
amount of heat from each resistance path can be calculated. It is Volts: 45
known that all of the heat that travels through the body of the Amps: 0.3
motor will be lost to the environment by natural convection on
the casing of the motor. Therefore, the heat lost through the
Power: 13.5 (W)
resistance path of R1 can be calculated by the following T∞: 22.2 (C)
method.
Ts: 48.9 (C)
T1 : 48.9 (C)
Tf: 308.55 (K)
For natural convection, h is unknown and is a function of
Nusselt’s Number. All properties of air should be found at the As: 0.0334 (m^2)
Film Temperature, Tf. The Film Temperature is found by taking
the average of Ts and T∞. The Nusselt correlation for a
D: 0.0762 (m)
horizontal cylinder is calculated by the following equation. Air k: 0.02514 (W/m-K)
Air β: 0.003241 (1/K)
Pr: 0.7309
Air ν: 1.52E-05 (m^2/s)
Gr: 1.63E+06
For RaD ≤ 1012 Ra: 1.19E+06 BUENO :)
Nu: 15.34
Air h: 5.06 (W/m^2-K)
Table 2 – Natural Convection without Fan

In this case we can assume that the air is acting as an ideal gas. Applying this data to Equation 1.2, the heat transfer through R 1
Therefore… can be calculated.

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 Applying this data to Equation 1.2, the heat transfer through R 1
can be calculated.

Because the system is at steady state, the power into the

system is equal to the heat leaving the system. The power into
the system is known to be 13.5 W. Therefore, using the
equation below, the amount of heat lost directly to the
surrounding air can be found.
From Equation 1.8…

With the fan, R1 and R2 were found to be 29.936 K/W

and 0.444 K/W respectively. The overall resistance, RTotal,
By using Equations 1.0.1 and 1.0.2, the values for R1 and was found to be 0.437 K/W. These resistance values imply
R2 were found to be 5.195 K/W and 2.971 K/W respectively. that the heat was most easily dissipated directly to the air
The overall resistance, RTotal, was found to be 1.978 K/W. passing through the motor. The energy balance may be
This implies that there was a greater resistance to heat flow confirmed by inserting the resistance values R 1 and R2 to satisfy
through the resistance path of R1. This also confirms that more Equation 1.0.
heat was lost directly to the air in contact with the heat source Now that the amount of heat dissipated by the fan is
from the open ends of the motor casing. The energy balance known, the mass flow rate for the air can be calculated using
may be confirmed by inserting the resistance values R1 and R2 the equation below.
to satisfy Equation 1.0.
The preceding steps were repeated to determine the effects
of natural convection while the fan was attached to the motor’s
shaft. Table 3 represents the steady state conditions for natural
The inlet and outlet temperatures were determined using
convection on the motor casing with the fan.
thermocouples. The inlet temperature was equal to the
ambient air temperature. The outlet temperature was found
With the Fan:
to be 26.2°C. Using Equation 2.0 to solve for the mass flow
rate renders the following…
With Spindle Fan
Volts: 45
Amps: 0.3
Power: 13.5 (W)
T∞: 22.2 (C)
Ts: 24.5 (C)
T1 : 28.1 (C)
Tf: 296.35 (K)
As: 0.0334 (m^2) The volumetric flow rate can be found given that the density of
air at the average temperature is…
D: 0.0762 (m)
Air k: 0.02514 (W/m-K)
Air β: 0.003106 (1/K)
Pr: 0.7309
Air ν: 1.52E-05 (m^2/s)
Gr: 1.35E+05
Ra: 9.86E+04 BUENO :)
Nu: 7.78
Using this flow rate as a point of reference, fan affinity
Air h: 2.57 (W/m^2-K) laws can be utilized to find the flow rates at any other rotational
Table 3 – Natural Convection with Fan speed. The testing speed was found using a stroboscope and

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was found to be a speed of 2,904 RPM. The appropriate
equation for volumetric flow affinity is shown below.

In this case, the fan diameter is not changing, so the cubed

term goes away. This leaves a ratio resulting in a linear function
for flow rate dependent upon the changing RPM. The figure
below represents the flow rate at different intervals of rotational
speed.

Figure 3 – Air Flow vs. RPM

REFERENCES

Cengel, Yunus A., Cimbala, John M., 2011, “Fluid Mechanics

Fundamentals and Applications 4th edition” New York, McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc.

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