Comparison between Axial fans and Centrifugal fans

There are many industrial fans manufacturers, but what do they do really. In reference markets, the term “industrial fan” does not have a clear definition and in this article, we want to explain what are industrial fans and answer to many other questions.
There are only two basic types of industrial fans: Axial Fans and Centrifugal fans. The other many fans and blowers fall under various classifications like Industrial Blowers, Industrial Ventilation Fans, Exhaust Blowers, Industrial Exhaust Fans, HVAC fans and blowers, and many others terms are used to define a Centrifugal Fan or an Axial Fan

An axial fan is one in which the extracted air is forced to move parallel to the shaft about which the blades rotate. Centrifugal fans extract air at right angles to the intake of the fan and spin the air outwards to the outlet by deflection and centrifugal force. The impeller rotates, causing air to enter the fan near the shaft and move perpendicularly from the shaft to the opening in the fan casing. The axial fans replace in certain fields of application the centrifugal fan from the functional point of view, operating at higher specific speeds with lower diameters. An axial fan, on equal flow and pressure, has the following differences compared to a centrifugal one:

– it has a lower diameter of the impeller
– it has a higher dynamic pressure
– it has an operating speed (and thus also the specific one being Q and P equal) clearly higher
– the peripheral speed is higher
– it has a lower yield and therefore a higher power consumption
– it is much noisier
– it is significantly smaller and lighter, and less expensive
The most significant data of this comparison are the weight, the speed of operation and the noise. The comparison of the speed of operation indicates that the same flow and pressure characteristics are obtainable by axial fans in higher operation and peripherals speeds than those of the centrifugal fans. Since there is a limit to the stresses in the rotating bodies, and then to their peripheral speeds, we can safely say that the pressures of a certain amount are more easily obtained with centrifugal fans instead of axial fans. The axial fans are much more noise, it often happens that to contain noise the axial fan requires the use of silencers, where there would be no need for a centrifugal fan.

Share this post