PIV measurements and a CFD benchmark study of a screen under fan-induced swirl conditions

A perforated plate placed behind an axial fan (push cooling) is a common assembly in electronic systems. The flow approaching the screen will have a swirling component, and therefore, there is uncertainty in the prediction of the flow pattern at the outlet of the screen and the pressure drop through the screen. Correctly predicting the flow field is important in order to properly place the electronic components. This work tries to give some insight into these issues. A wind tunnel was manufactured in order to produce the typical flow field at the outlet of an axial fan and to measure the field at the inlet and at the outlet of the perforated plate using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique; the pressure drop through the screen was also measured. The velocity contours measured at the screen inlet were used as boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Several turbulence models (k- ε, k- ω and RSTM) and their variations were used for the simulations and the results at the outlet of the perforated plate are compared with the Particle Image Velocimetry results. Two screens with very different geometrical characteristics were used. Results show that if k- ε models are used a significant error is made in the prediction of the velocity field and in the pressure drop. Although the k- ω models predicted better than the k- ε models, the RSTM were shown to be the most reliable.