Energy consumption is becoming a main issue for designers in the field of house appliances. After the EU Directive 92/75/EC, the EU Energy Label must now always be displayed at sale, dividing energy efficiency into classes from A to G, in decreasing order of efficiency. Such regulation has forced companies to pay great attention to the design of new products, in order to find a place in the market.
The presented work is a consequence of the above-mentioned directive. So Elica supported by Enginesoft performed a CFD analysis on a kitchen hood model. The target was to increase the efficiency of its ventilation system, rising to higher energy classes, intensifying their position on the market. A 3D numerical model was built in ANSYS Design Modeler, combined with Blade Modeler. ANSYS CFX was the CFD solver used to evaluate the fluid dynamics of the system. A time steady analysis was carried out, Single modifications were compared to the baseline model utilizing the OVAT (One-Variable-At-a-Time) optimization cycle. The successful results achieved led to a combination of modifications, evaluating the improvements due to the synergy of effective factors.
The ideal configuration designed by means of CFD analysis was tested in Elica’s laboratory, allowing a full comparison between the baseline model and the optimized model utilizing the same test bench and the same engine.
The requirements of the work, in terms of increase of the ventilation system’s efficiency and obtaining higher energy classes, were achieved. In addition, the ventilation system designed by EnginSoft can be fitted in various other models of kitchen hoods, improving the performance of various products