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1 The vane-type rotary compressor of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system (HVAC system) is simple and compact but may emit noise due to the collision between the vanes and the cylinder wall. Several studies have been conducted on this chattering noise, with a focus on the noise associated with the compressor revolution speed, temperature, suction pressure, and exhaust pressure. However, such investigations are not sufficient to reveal the behavior of the vane movement in its entirety. To minimize the chattering noise, the details of the mechanism of such vane-operating noise must be investigated by analyzing the behavior of the vanes as a function of time. The vanes move according to the balance between the front and rear pressures. This report describes a novel visualization technique with which to monitor the motion of a vane under given operating conditions. In addition, a method of measuring the pressure affecting the movement of the vanes is discussed.

Air flowing through a narrow slit sometimes generates noise. This phenomenon has been identified in some parts of automobile HVAC systems. The noise annoys drivers and passengers and causes deterioration in the automobile’s quality. Simply sealing the gap is a way to avoid such flow noise. In an HVAC system, however, the doors that control the air flow are openable, and the door slits, which are difficult to eliminate, emanate the noise in transient conditions. The noise is well known, but the mechanism of noise generation has not been well studied to date. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been a useful tool for air flow studies, but commercial CFD programs usually use a turbulence model such as Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS); in addition, the flow behavior result depends on the model selected in the calculation.