We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
About Mechanics

Advertiser Disclosure

Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

How We Make Money

We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently from our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Machinery

What is a Centrifugal Fan?

By H.R. Childress
Updated Feb 22, 2024
Our promise to you
AboutMechanics is dedicated to creating trustworthy, high-quality content that always prioritizes transparency, integrity, and inclusivity above all else. Our ensure that our content creation and review process includes rigorous fact-checking, evidence-based, and continual updates to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

Editorial Standards

At DelightedCooking, we are committed to creating content that you can trust. Our editorial process is designed to ensure that every piece of content we publish is accurate, reliable, and informative.

Our team of experienced writers and editors follows a strict set of guidelines to ensure the highest quality content. We conduct thorough research, fact-check all information, and rely on credible sources to back up our claims. Our content is reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy and clarity.

We believe in transparency and maintain editorial independence from our advertisers. Our team does not receive direct compensation from advertisers, allowing us to create unbiased content that prioritizes your interests.

A centrifugal fan is a fan in which air flows in a radial — or perpendicular — direction relative to the fan shaft. This is in contrast to axial fans, the type commonly used for household cooling, in which air flows parallel to the fan shaft. While axial fans can move large volumes of air, centrifugal fans are better suited for applications requiring high air pressure. For this reason, centrifugal fans are used in many industrial processes and in air pollution control systems.

Parts of a centrifugal fan include the fan wheel, fan housing, drive mechanism, and inlet or outlet dampers. The fan wheel consists of fan blades mounted on a hub, which is turned on a shaft that passes through the fan housing. Air enters the fan through the center of the fan wheel, then turns 90° to pass over the fan blades and exit the fan housing.

The drive mechanism of the fan may be direct, belt, or variable drive. Which drive mechanism a centrifugal fan features determines what speed the fan moves at, and how much this speed can be varied. For direct drive, the fan wheel and the shaft of the motor are directly linked, so that the fan's speed is the same as that of the motor shaft and cannot be varied. One or more belts are used to connect the fan wheel and motor shaft in a belt driven mechanism, and the speed of the fan depends upon the ratio of the shaft sizes. Variable drive fans allow the fan speed to be varied through the use of hydraulic or magnetic couplings.

Blades on a centrifugal fan may be forward, backward, or radial. Forward blades are curved in the direction of fan rotation, have high efficiency, and may be built with small dimensions. Backward blades may be either curved backward or straight. They have high efficiency and low energy requirements and noise emissions — and straight backward blades are also self-cleaning. Radial blades extend straight out from the fan hub, are self-cleaning, and are often used in air pollution control systems because they are least sensitive to particulate build-up.

Centrifugal fans are used in many industrial processes because they are able to produce large increases in air pressure. They are often used in grain drying and and greenhouse ventilation. These are also common in air pollution control as well as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

AboutMechanics is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
See our Editorial Process Share Feedback

Related Articles

Discussion Comments

By nony — On Jul 29, 2011

@Charred - I think I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen those units myself. Personally, I think they are used to drive air flow inside massive wind chambers.

I imagine that these chambers can be used as testing facilities for aircraft or other vehicles that require massive inflows of air to test their aerodynamic capabilities.

I suppose the wind chambers could be used to conduct tightly controlled scientific experiments that require blasts of air flow, like studying the patterns of storms or hurricanes. These are just my conjectures, but I definitely don’t think they are for industrial air conditioning units.

By Charred — On Jul 28, 2011

Now and then on the road I see a big truck carrying a huge centrifugal fan in its payload. When I say huge, I mean huge – so much so that the truck has to be escorted by a smaller pickup with a sign that reads “Oversized load.”

I always wonder what that monstrous fan is for, but by the size of it, it’s probably for air conditioning units in a big building or something like that.

It may be used in an airport too for all I know, but it’s definitely an industrial size unit and by all visual accounts it does appear to be a centrifugal fan.

AboutMechanics, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

AboutMechanics, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.