Streamlining fan development by reducing development time from concept to prototype by 50 percent

Improving fan efficiency and NVH performance

EMC FIME manufactures electric motors and fans for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment and other appliances. They do not make complete equipment but provide parts to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Therefore, their products must meet the strict requirements set by the OEMs, which over the last three years have been shifting their demands and changing their requests frequently. This has forced EMC FIME to adapt, move faster and become more flexible to meet new requirements.

One of EMC FIME’s most important markets is domestic heating, as household boilers require a fan to mix fluids to improve combustion efficiency. This requires optimizing the impeller for aerodynamic and vibroacoustic performance to enhance comfort, safety and reliability. Nobody wants a noisy boiler in their home, and excessive vibration can also damage components. The fans are typically guaranteed for at least 10 years, so reliability is imperative.

Research and Development (R&D) Manager, Gianluca Catalini, explains the various factors influencing design. “Our customers are OEMs and they want products that are not only compliant with current regulations but will also meet future ones,” says Catalini. “They want them to be environmentally friendly and, of course, energy efficient. Most manufacturers offer this, but noise and vibration are the real differentiators that distinguish you from the competition. This is why we have invested in improving these aspects.” EMC FIME uses Simcenter™ STAR-CCM+™ software for aerodynamic analysis, Simcenter 3D software for structural, modal and acoustic analysis, including noise, vibration and harshness (NVH).

Additionally, the company leverages Simcenter E-Machine Design software for the parametric design of motors. EMC FIME also uses Simcenter SCADAS™ hardware and Simcenter Testlab™ software for data capture and physical testing during verification. Simcenter is part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Combining simulation and testing tools

The fan is a complex system that combines an electric motor, impeller and electronics. This means it requires close cooperation between the mechanical simulation and electromagnetic simulation teams.

“We began with the mechanical design of each component,” says Savino Pontino, mechanical simulation manager at EMC FIME. “Leveraging the Simcenter tools allowed us to develop the aerodynamics, vibroacoustics, electromagnetics and electrics at the same time. This means we could immediately see how a change to one element would affect another and quickly make adjustments, rather than having to make much bigger changes later in the design lifecycle.”

Pontino says that the flexibility and compatibility of the Siemens Digital Industries Software solutions were key to the project’s success. “The Simcenter tools all communicate directly with each other, which not only makes workflows easier and less error prone, but it also breaks down silos between teams,” says Pontino. “Also, the token licensing meant we could use many different solvers within Simcenter 3D without needing to purchase individual solutions for each task.”

After optimizing the designs via simulation, the teams could verify performance and reliability with testing. “We used Simcenter Testlab since it is user-friendly and delivers great results,” says Marco Magnaterra, electric motor engineer at EMC FIME. “Along with Simcenter SCADAS, it helped us solve many performance engineering problems.”

Halving development time

Optimizing the performance of each aspect of the fan earlier in the design process enabled EMC FIME to minimize the cost of each component, further improving the company’s competitiveness.

“As well as meeting performance requirements and regulations, our customers demand speed,” says Catalini. “We have to be able to design and produce these components quickly to be competitive. Using Simcenter gives us the flexibility to respond quickly to changing demands.”

The engineers also took advantage of the ability to create modules, so they can reuse sections of the product in future products and in other business lines, helping save more time and deliver more efficiencies.

“Using Simcenter to complement physical testing with simulation has cut our time from concept to prototype from over a year to six months,” says Catalini. “We still need testing to validate our designs, and because of this combined test-simulation approach, we now have more confidence in our first prototype than before.”

Martina Bolognini, project manager at EMC FIME, states that simulation enabled structural improvements to components, specifically regarding displacement and stress values at critical points. Air flow and pressure increased by over 50 percent, with an overall improvement in aerodynamic efficiency of at least 2 to 5 percent. Regarding vibroacoustic performance, EMC FIME eliminated critical resonances, and all sound pressure values were well within the targets set by its customers.

A complete Digital Twin

Using a simulation approach that is efficiently validated via testing was so successful that the team at EMC FIME is now looking to expand it further to achieve greater efficiencies.

“For new projects, we have a system that consists of three subsystems: the fan, the electronics and the electric motor,” says Catalini. “We plan to develop a Digital Twin of this system in which these three subsystems work together. This would speed up customization and help us get new products to customers even sooner, which is vital to stay ahead of the competition.”