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Exploded View of a Belt-Driven Centrifugal Fan

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About This MicroSim

This MicroSim shows a belt-driven single-width, single-inlet (SWSI) centrifugal fan in Arrangement 9, pulled apart along its shaft line the way an exploded view in FanPedia or a submittal drawing shows it. It names 14 parts, from the inlet collar and flanged inlet through the drive train to the pedestal.

The drawing is a simplified schematic drawn in code, modeled on the FanPedia page 10 exploded view. It is not to scale and does not show a specific Twin City Fan model.

The flanged inlet sits in its own "Inlet option" box because it is the alternative to the inlet collar. A fan ships with one or the other, not both.

The quiz has 10 prompts in a fixed order, with two attempts each. Mastery is 9 of 10 correct on the first attempt. Explore mode is never scored.

How to Use

  1. Explore mode (the starting mode). Select any part to open its infobox. Only one infobox is open at a time. Each part you have opened gets a ✓ mark and a shaded label, and the counter shows how many of the 14 you have visited.
  2. Assemble / Explode. Press Assemble to slide the parts into place. The inlet funnel and impeller disappear inside the housing, and the shaft, bearings, sheave, belts and motor drop onto the pedestal. Press Explode to pull them apart again. Labels are shown only in the exploded view.
  3. Quiz mode. Press Quiz. The labels are hidden and the drawing stays exploded. Ten prompts appear in a fixed order. Select the part that matches each one. You get two attempts per prompt:
    • Correct: you see "✓ Correct:" with the reason, and that part's label appears.
    • First miss: you see "✗ That is the …" naming the part you picked, with the reason for the correct answer, and you try again.
    • Second miss: the correct part is highlighted and marked "Answer", and the prompt counts as missed.
  4. Press Next prompt after each answer. After the tenth prompt, a summary shows your score ("Correct on first attempt: n of 10"), whether you reached mastery (9 of 10), and lists the prompts you missed or got on the second attempt, with their reasons. Press Start over to retake the quiz or Back to explore to review parts.
  5. Start over in the toolbar clears your visited parts and the quiz and returns to the exploded view in explore mode.

Keyboard: Tab moves between parts and buttons; Enter or Space selects a part. After an answer, focus moves to Next prompt, so Enter goes on.

Data label: "Simplified schematic, not to scale · Source: FanPedia, page 10 (exploded view, Arrangement 9)", shown at the bottom left of the drawing.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://moroshek.github.io/FanTASTIC-textbook/sims/ch03-exploded-centrifugal-fan/main.html"
        height="698px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Learning Objective

The learner will identify each of the 14 labeled parts in an exploded view of a belt-driven Arrangement 9 centrifugal fan when given the part's name or function (Bloom: Remember, verb: identify).

Audience

New application engineers, sales staff, manufacturer's representatives and facilities staff who will read exploded views and submittal drawings of centrifugal fans.

Duration

10 to 15 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 3, Basic Fan Anatomy, through the drive-train sections.
  • The terms exploded view, fan housing, impeller, inlet funnel, inlet collar, inlet flange, outlet flange, shaft, bearing, sheave, V-belt, motor, slide base and pedestal.

Activities

  1. Explore (5 min): Open all 14 infoboxes. For each part, say out loud whether it touches the air.
  2. Assemble and explode (2 min): Press Assemble and watch where the funnel, impeller and drive parts go. Note that the bearings, sheave and motor end up outside the housing.
  3. Quiz (5 min): Switch to quiz mode and answer the ten prompts without going back to explore mode.
  4. Review (3 min): Read the reasons for any missed prompts, return to explore mode for those parts, then retake the quiz.

Common Misconceptions Addressed

  • The inlet funnel and the inlet collar are the same part. The funnel shapes the air into the impeller; the collar is a duct connection.
  • The pedestal is part of the housing. It is a separate support for the bearings and shaft.
  • The fan sheave and the motor sheave are the same size. Their ratio sets fan speed.

Assessment

  • First-attempt score shown as "Correct on first attempt: n of 10"; mastery is 9 of 10 on the first attempt in quiz mode.
  • Opening infoboxes in explore mode is exploration and does not count as evidence.

References

  1. FanPedia: The Fan & Blower Encyclopedia (PDF) - Twin City Fan & Blower; page 10 is the exploded view of belt-driven centrifugal fans, Arrangement 9, that this drawing is modeled on.
  2. FanPedia online - Twin City Fan & Blower's online version of the encyclopedia.
  3. Chapter 3: Basic Fan Anatomy - the sections on the housing, impeller, inlet, outlet and drive train, which cite FanPedia pages 59, 79, 90 and 188 for the infobox definitions.