Retrofitting of Centrifugal

Blower for ME Lab Use

Prepared by: Allana, Christian D.

Introduction

Centrifugal fans and blowers are widely used

in applications ranging from household
ventilation system and also for the process
industries. Their main function is to generate a
pressure to move the air or gases against the
resistance caused by ducts, dampers, or even
the other components of it in a fan or blower
system. These machines have been designed
with different configurations and geometries;
radial, backward curves and forward curves.

Continuation

Blowers can achieve much higher pressures than fans, as high

as 1.20 kg/cm2. They are also used to produce negative
pressures for industrial vacuum systems. Centrifugal blowers
are look more likely as centrifugal pumps than fans. The
impeller of it inside is typically gear-driven and rotates as fast as
15,000 rpm. In multi stage blowers, air is accelerated as it
passes through each impeller. While the single stage blower, air
does not take many turns, and hence its more efficient. A
centrifugal blower typically operates against pressures ranging
from 0.30 to 0.70 kg/cm2, but it can achieve high pressures. The
flow in a centrifugal blower is highly complex and poorly
understood due to its three dimensional nature and geometrical
parameters of the machine which can result major affliction in
achieving high efficiency standards for the blowers.

Continuation

One characteristic of this is that airflow tends to

drop drastically as system pressure increases, which
can be disadvantage in material conveying systems
that depend on a steady air volume. Simply,
because of this, they are most often used in
applications that are not prone to clogging. The
performance of a blower is greatly affected by the
number of blades, their shape, also geometry and
operating conditions. Further, the diffusing elements
downstream of the impeller govern the flow through
the machine, its range of operation and efficiency.

Continuation

Conventionally, the impeller blades in a

centrifugal blower are of constant thickness
made out of metal sheet; as the demand for the
improvement of its performance and efficiency
of centrifugal turbo machines increases the
blades with aerofoil sections and have come to
be used for centrifugal impellers, since it is well
known that the aerofoil sections in the turbo
machines can guide and control the flowing of
fluid with minimum losses.

Conceptual Framework

Inspection of the
Centrifugal
Blower

Retrofitting of the
Centrifugal
Blower
Glass Framing for
U-tube
Manometers

Conduct
Experiment

Testing and
Observations

Designing of a
new System for
Centrifugal
Blower

Increasing the
size of the
exhaust

Statement of the
Problem

This research focused more on retrofitting of the existing

centrifugal blower test rig in the mechanical engineering
laboratory, to give the mechanical engineering students
such better information on how to deal with it when using in
experimentations.
Objectives of the Study

General Objective

To be able to identify the present status of the

Blower

Centrifugal

Continuation

Specific Objectives

To transform the current centrifugal blower into a

bigger one to maximize the volume and to push a
large amount of air.

To protect the u-tube manometers from any violent

reactions of the student(s) by framing it.

To adjust the pressure gage and other measuring

devices for them to easily read the values.

Significance of the Study

This research is focused more on retrofitting of

the actual centrifugal blower in the
mechanical engineering laboratory to become
more efficient when it comes to its
performance, also for the good design to raise
the pressure and throw a large amount of air
or gasses.

Scopes and
Delimitations

The scope of this study will focused only on

retrofitting of the existing Centrifugal Blower
inside the mechanical engineering laboratory
and to identify the current status of the other
components of it if there is something needed
to be change.