Abstract
This paper presents research on methods for the reduction of forklifts' noise level for the increased comfort and safety of its operator. A cooling fan with a high air volume flow rate installed in the forklift acts as an important design parameter which efficiently cools the heat exchanger system, helping to transfer internal heat from the engine room to the outdoors with both transmitted and diffracted opening noises. The cooling fan contributes significantly to both the forklift's emitted sound power and the operator room's noise level, thereby necessitating research on the forklift's reduction of acoustic power level and transmission. A noise analysis for various fan models with a biomimetic design based on eagle-wing geometry was conducted. In addition to the acoustic power generation, the aerodynamic performance of the cooling blade is also strongly influenced by the design of airfoil distribution, thereby requiring optimization. The cooling fans were fabricated and installed in the forklift in order to check the efficacy of the forklift engine's cooling, and the final version of the fan was measured for its ability to lower acoustic power level and cool the engine room. This study explains the aerodynamic and acoustic features of the designed fans with the use of BEM analysis and forklift test results.