A Study on Differential Speed Dispersion Control of Fan Assemblies for Air-Cooled Shipboard Equipment
Suppressing underwater radiated noise (URN) is critical for naval anti-submarine warfare (ASW) survivability. High-heat shipboard cabinets use densely packed cooling fans, but their synchronous operation superimposes harmonic forces, generating a critical structure-borne tonal peak. This study analyzes anechoic chamber data from a 12-fan array, revealing that 2X torque ripples of BLDC motors concentrate within the 125 Hz resonance band of an panel, producing a 50.0 dB peak. To mitigate this, a Differential Speed Dispersion Control (DSDC) is proposed, enforcing a 3% speed deviation among adjacent fans. By inducing phase desynchronization (incoherent addition), an analytical power sum model predicts an 8.5 dB attenuation of the 125 Hz peak. Although accompanied by a minor airborne noise penalty (+0.64 dB), this study analytically validates DSDC as an effective trade-off strategy for maximizing acoustic stealth.