Abstract
The cut volute profile is far and widely used in the squirrel cage fan to meet the space limitation of range hood systems. The cut volute profile often causes unreasonable impeller–volute interference and the aerodynamic performance of the fan to drop. A numerical model combined with the neural network and the genetic algorithm of a squirrel cage fan volute for a range hood is presented in this paper. The secondary non-uniform B-spline curve represents the volute profile variation law, and its control points are used as design variables to meet space constraints. The goal of global optimization is to maximize the efficiency and volume flow rate. As a result of the optimization, the internal flow loss of the fan is reduced compared with the prototype. The volume flow rate and efficiency are increased by over 4.4% in case of optimized volute than the original configuration of the volute.
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