CFD Analysis of Pressure Distribution Around Large Fan

[TJ_Laser]

I am using Solidworks to model the pressure distribution of air around a large fan. The fan is 10' in diameter and moves 94,000 CFM. I need to know the effect adding a large duct around the inlet of the fan would have on the pressure. If the duct causes a huge pressure drop then we can't use it.

The duct would completely enclose the inlet and extend 18'. After modeling the air flow Solidworks tells me the lowest-pressure point in the entire duct would be only 0.4 psi below atmospheric pressure. It seems to me that a fan of this size pulling air through 18' of duct would cause much lower pressure than that.

I have added some pictures of the model and results. Air enters through the rectangular inlet shown in the two pictures of the model. It exists through the opening, which I have modeled as a red disk. As you can see the pressure inside the duct is barely below atmospheric pressure. Intuitively it seems like it should be much lower. As a new engineer with little experience my intuitive frame of reference may not be realistic. Any thoughts?

The length units in the attached pictures are in inches.

 

[AlephZero]

Using Bernouilli's equation (assuming the air is incompressible) will give you a sanity check on what pressure changes to expect.

 

[TJ_Laser]

We did that and found a much higher pressure difference than that predicted by Solidworks. I'll just have to go back to the model and see if I made any mistakes.

 

[bill nye scienceguy!]

Your first mistake was to use Solidworks.

In my experience (admittedly a few years ago now) Solidworks is workable if you want to compare flow paths on, for example, different iterations of a model but if you're after an absolute value don't bother.