METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REDUCING FAN NOISE AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE USING THE SAME
20170243574 · 2017-08-24
Inventors
Cpc classification
G10K2210/129
PHYSICS
G10K11/17883
PHYSICS
International classification
Abstract
A noise-reducing fan system, comprising a motor, a fan body, a plurality of magnetic-inducing elements, a magnetic field generator and a noise-reducing sound source device, is provided. Here, the fan body is mounted on the motor. The fan body comprises a plurality of blades, on which the plurality of magnetic-inducing elements are disposed, respectively. The magnetic field generator, which may generate a magnetic field, is employed for driving the plurality of magnetic-inducing elements to vibrate the plurality of blades and generate a vibration sound, so that at least one portion of the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating may be counterbalanced. The noise-reducing sound source device is disposed on a predetermined position and may send out a noise-reducing sound, so that the noise-reducing sound may counterbalance at least the other portion of the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating.
Claims
1. A noise-reducing fan system, comprising: a motor; a fan body, mounted on the motor, and the fan body adapted to be driven and rotated by the motor, wherein the fan body comprises a plurality of blades; a plurality of magnetic-inducing elements, disposed on the plurality of blades, respectively; a magnetic field generator, capable of generating a magnetic field, adapted to drive the plurality of magnetic-inducing elements to vibrate the plurality of blades and generate a vibration sound so as to counterbalance at least a portion of a noise emitted from the fan body as rotating; and a noise-reducing sound source device, capable of sending out a noise-reducing sound, and the noise-reducing sound source device being disposed on a predetermined position, so that the noise-reducing sound counterbalances at least the other portion of the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating.
2. The noise-reducing fan system according to claim 1, further comprising: a frame body, encircling the fan body, wherein the plurality of magnetic-inducing elements are a plurality of magnetic elements, and the magnetic field generator is attached to the frame body.
3. The noise-reducing fan system according to claim 1, further comprising: a noise-capturing device, adapted to receive the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating and transform the noise into a noise signal; a frequency-dividing logic circuit, electrically connected to the noise-capturing device, adapted to divide the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating into a high-frequency noise and a low-frequency noise; and an active noise-reducing circuit, electrically connected to the frequency-dividing logic circuit, the magnetic field generator and the noise-reducing sound source device, adapted to command the magnetic field generator and the noise-reducing sound source device to generate the vibration sound and the noise-reducing sound, respectively, in response to the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise, wherein the vibration sound and the noise-reducing sound are inverse signals of the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise, respectively.
4. The noise-reducing fan system according to claim 3, wherein the frequency-dividing logic circuit carries out the frequency-dividing of the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise based on a physical distance between the noise-reducing sound source device and a noise source of the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating, and a phase difference between the noise-reducing sound and the noise source which is less than 60 degrees.
5. The noise-reducing fan system according to claim 4, wherein the active noise-reducing circuit further comprises a first active noise-reducing circuit and a second active noise-reducing circuit, which are electrically connected to the magnetic field generator and the noise-reducing sound source device, respectively, and wherein the frequency-dividing logic circuit is adapted to send the noise signal to the first active noise-reducing circuit and the second active noise-reducing circuit, respectively, after the frequency-dividing logic circuit carries out the frequency-dividing of the noise signal.
6. The noise-reducing fan system according to claim 4, wherein the active noise-reducing circuit is electrically connected between the noise-capturing device and the frequency-dividing logic circuit, so that the noise signal is transformed into an inverse sound source signal, and the inverse sound source signal is inputted to the frequency-dividing logic circuit, the active noise-reducing circuit is adapted to control the magnetic field generator and the noise-reducing sound source device, respectively, based on the corresponding frequency-divided high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise as two control signals.
7. An electronic device, comprising: a noise-reducing fan system, comprising: a motor; a fan body, mounted on the motor, and the fan body adapted to be driven and rotated by the motor, wherein the fan body comprises a plurality of blades; a plurality of magnetic-inducing elements, disposed on the plurality of blades, respectively; a magnetic field generator, capable of generating a magnetic field, adapted to drive the plurality of magnetic-inducing elements to vibrate the plurality of blades and generate a vibration sound so as to counterbalance at least a portion of a noise emitted from the fan body as rotating; and a noise-reducing sound source device, capable of sending out a noise-reducing sound, and the noise-reducing sound source device being disposed on a predetermined position, so that the noise-reducing sound counterbalances at least the other portion of the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating; and a device body, wherein the noise-reducing fan system is mounted in the device body.
8. The electronic device according to claim 7, further comprising: a voice source controller, disposed in the device body; and a speaker, electrically connected to the voice source controller, adapted to send out a voice.
9. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the noise-reducing sound source device is electrically connected to the voice source controller, so that the speaker is allowed to send out the voice at the same time.
10. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the noise-reducing sound source device is the speaker.
11. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the electronic device is a projector, and the noise-reducing fan system is an axial-flow fan.
12. A method for reducing fan noise, for reducing a noise generated by a fan in its operation, wherein the fan comprises a fan body provided with a plurality of blades, the method comprising steps of: acquiring a frequency, an amplitude and a phase of the noise; dividing the noise into a high-frequency noise and a low-frequency noise; and providing a first inverse sound and a second inverse sound, respectively, in accordance with the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise, as well as the amplitude and the phase of the noise, respectively, so that the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise are adapted to be counterbalanced.
13. The method for reducing fan noise according to claim 12, wherein the first inverse sound is a vibration sound generated by the plurality of blades of the fan body to be controlled.
14. The method for reducing fan noise according to claim 13, wherein the second inverse sound is a noise-reducing sound sent out by a noise-reducing sound source device.
15. The method for reducing fan noise according to claim 14, wherein the frequency-dividing of the high frequency noise and the low frequency noise is carried out based on a physical distance between the noise-reducing sound source device and a noise source of the noise emitted from the fan body as rotating and a phase difference between the noise-reducing sound and the noise source which is less than 60 degrees.
16. The method for reducing fan noise according to claim 12, wherein the noise is firstly frequency-divided into the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise, and then, an inverse sound source signal calculation is performed for the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise, respectively, and the first inverse sound and the second inverse sound are sent out by use of a different acoustical device.
17. The method for reducing fan noise according to claim 16, further comprises a feedback and adjustment step, wherein the first inverse sound and the second inverse sound are feedback and adjusted.
18. The method for reducing fan noise according to claim 12, wherein the inverse sound source signal calculation is performed for the noise so as to obtain an inverse sound source signal, and then, the frequency-dividing is performed for the inverse sound source signal, and the first inverse sound and the second inverse sound are sent out by use of a different acoustical device.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0027] In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. In this regard, directional terminology, such as “top”, “bottom”, “front”, “back”, etc., is used with reference to the orientation of the Figure(s) being described. The components of the invention may be positioned in a number of different orientations. As such, the directional terminology is used for purposes of illustration and is in no way limiting. On the other hand, the drawings are only schematic and the sizes of components may be exaggerated for clarity. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including”, “comprising”, or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompassing the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. Unless limited otherwise, the terms “connected”, “coupled”, and “mounted” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompassing direct and indirect connections, couplings, and mountings. Similarly, the terms “facing”, “faces”, and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompassing direct and indirect facing, and “adjacent to” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompassing directly and indirectly “adjacent to”. Therefore, the description of “A” component facing “B” component herein may contain the situations that “A” component facing “B” component directly or one or more additional components is between “A” component and “B” component. Also, the description of “A” component “adjacent to” “B” component herein may contain the situations that “A” component is directly “adjacent to” “B” component or one or more additional components is between “A” component and “B” component. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions may be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.
[0028] When using a speaker as an inverse sound source for actively reducing noise, since the conversion efficiency of electrical energy to low-frequency sonic energy is high, the efficiency for processing low-frequency noise may be better than that of the active noise-reducing technology using fan vibration. In comparison with high-frequency noise, the low-frequency noise has a longer wavelength and a stronger penetrability. Thus, it is difficult to reduce low-frequency noise by a blocking method. However, as its longer wavelength, when the noise source and the inverse noise source locate at different spatial positions, most of the inverse sonic waves may still counterbalance the noise source and achieve the cancelling effects, and thus, it is suitable to reduce the low-frequency noise by use of the active noise-reducing technology with speaker. On the contrary, if a high-frequency noise signal is generated by the noise source, since its wavelength is shorter, when a distance between the inverse sound source and the noise source becomes larger, it may be difficult to reduce the noise through aligning the phases in all directions of sonic waves, i.e. it is ready to reduce the high-frequency noise at some spatial position. However, it may incur a higher-frequency noise at another position. That is, when the active noise-reducing technology is employed for reducing the high-frequency noise, the closer the spatial distance between the inverse sound source and the noise source, the better the effect of noise-reduction. And it may be difficult to achieve such an object through the active noise-reducing technology with speaker, on the other hand, under such circumstances, the inverse sound source generated by the fan body's vibration in the active noise-reducing technology is the better way to reduce the high-frequency noise. The concept of the invention's technology resides in that the above-described various active noise-reducing technology's advantages may be utilized and unified, for solving the problem of various noise-reducing technology's disadvantages.
[0029] Referring to
[0030] The frame body 16 of the noise-reducing fan system 1 encircles or surrounds the fan body 12, and the magnetic field generator 14 is winded around or attached to the frame body 16, for example, current coil, or any other device capable of generating an adjustable magnetic field. In this embodiment, the magnetic-inducing elements 13 may be a magnetic element, for example, magnet. Here, it is not intended to limit the magnet to a product made by magnetic ore, i.e. it may be any object or device which is capable of generating a magnetic field. It may generate an oscillating magnetic field, for example, via controlling the current's magnitude and direction in the coil, for acting on the magnetic-inducing elements 13 of the blades 121, so that blades 121 may be oscillated and generate vibration sound V from the friction of air flow and blades 121, for reducing a high-frequency noise, may be sent out. The noise-reducing sound source device 15 may be mounted at a position nearby the noise-reducing fan system 1, for example, as shown in
[0031] Referring to
[0032] In the embodiment as shown in
[0033] Difference between the embodiment as shown in
[0034] In view that various active noise-reducing technologies have different effects upon the high-frequency noise and the low-frequency noise, the invention's noise-reducing sound S may thus be designed to a lower frequency than the vibration sound V. In order to achieve the effect of noise-reduction, the design of the frequency-dividing logic circuit 18 has been considered, about two following issues:
[0035] 1. Inverse sound source acoustical device's frequency response graph: Since a physical position of the inverse sound source as generated by the fan body vibration module (including the fan body 12, the magnetic-inducing elements 13 and the magnetic field generator 14) is closer to the noise source B (referring to
[0036] 2. A physical distance between the noise source B and the inverse voice source and the noise-reducing effect to be achieved when employing the noise-reducing sound source device 15 as the inverse noise source: If phase angles of both of the noise source and the inverse sound source may be completely aligned (0 degree), the noise-reducing effect may be good. However, if a phase difference between the noise source and the inverse sound source reaches 60 degrees, it may be impossible to obtain noise-reducing effect after a mutual interaction of two sonic waves. When a phase difference between the noise source and the inverse sound source becomes larger than 60 degrees, it may disadvantageously incur a greater noise after the mutual interaction of two sonic waves. With a limitation of 60 degrees of phase angle, accompanying with the physical distance between the noise source and the inverse sound source, it is possible to obtain the limitation of the wavelength of voice, together with a speed of voice, so that the limitation of voice's frequency may be calculated. For example, suppose 60 degrees of the phase angle's difference is incurred from the physical distance between the noise source and the inverse sound source, and such a physical distance is about 0.05 m, thus the wavelength of voice is 0.05*360/60=0.3 m. At this time, suppose the speed of voice is 340 m/s, then the limitation of frequency is 340/0.3=1133 Hz. On the demand of noise-reduction, it is possible to adjust the limitation of the phase angle, and a different frequency's limitation may be obtained. Such a frequency's limitation is exactly the predetermined frequency as preset in the frequency-dividing logic circuit. It may be appreciated that, through the above descriptions, the frequency-division between the high-frequency noise HN and the low-frequency noise LN may be performed according to the limitations of physical distance D (referring to
[0037] The aforementioned noise-reducing fan system 1 may be mounted in a body 2 of an electronic device 100 as shown in
[0038] In an embodiment as shown in
[0039] During executing the method for reducing fan noise of the invention, for reduce the noise N generated by the above-described axial-flow fan 1 in its operation, first of all, a frequency, an amplitude and a phase of the noise N are acquired, next, the noise N is divided into a high-frequency noise HN and a low-frequency noise LN; then, a first inverse sound and a second inverse sound are provided, respectively, for the high-frequency noise HN and the low-frequency noise LN, based on an amplitude and a phase of the noise, respectively, so that the high-frequency noise HN and the low-frequency noise LN may be counterbalanced. In an embodiment, the first inverse sound is a vibration sound V as generated by the blades 121 of the fan body 12 to be controlled, and the second inverse sound is a noise-reducing sound S emitted from the noise-reducing sound source device 15.
[0040] Timing for dividing the noise N into the high-frequency noise HN and the low-frequency noise LN are different, depending on practical occasions, that is, in the embodiment as shown in
[0041] On the other hand, in the embodiment as shown in
[0042] It may be well appreciated that the noise-reducing effect of the invention may be achieved by a relationship of noise and its inverse sound source signal, as illustrated in
[0043] As shown in
[0044] However, if fan's right-side region is a noise-emphasized direction, it is possible to adjust the phase of the inverse noise sonic waves as shown in the next drawing so as to allow the right region to achieve the active noise-reducing effect, however, left-side region's noise may increase. Therefore, such a hybrid active noise-reducing fan may sufficiently utilize the characteristics of high-frequency voice, low-frequency voice and technology of active noise-reduction, so that a flow-field noise generated by the fan may be effectively reduced. Here, although a breakpoint of high-frequency and low-frequency is set at 1000 Hz, however, such a breakpoint of high-frequency and low-frequency should be set based on the distance between the noise source and the inverse sound source and the noise-reducing effect to be achieved. The frequency-division between the high-frequency noise HN and the low-frequency noise LN is carried out, based on a physical distance D between the aforementioned noise-reducing sound source device 15 and a noise source B of noise N emitted from the fan body 12 as rotating, as well as a phase difference R less than 60 degrees between the noise-reducing sound Sand the noise source B.
[0045] In summary, according to the invention, fan body vibrations and different inverse sounds, which are caused by a noise-reducing sound source device, such as noise-reducing speaker and so on, are provided in the fan system at the same time. In this way, it is possible to reduce high frequency and low frequency noise values of the fan at the same time, and drastically and substantially improve the effect of active noise-reduction. At the same time, in case that such a fan is adapted to any product with the speaker, such a fan may be directly used as a speaker, resulting in the reduction of product's complication. Once such a fan functions as a speaker, it may be possible to control the voice's frequency-dividing to be output through a software, and select either speaker or fan body served as a voice outputting device depending on a voice frequency acoustical efficiency, alternatively, both of them are selected so as to obtain a louder volume.
[0046] The foregoing description of the preferred embodiment of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form or to exemplary embodiments disclosed. Accordingly, the foregoing description should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Obviously, many modifications and variations may be apparent to practitioners skilled in this art. The embodiments are chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its best mode practical application, thereby to enable persons skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use or implementation contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents in which all terms are meant in their broadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated.
[0047] Therefore, the term “the invention”, “the present invention” or the like is not necessary limited the claim scope to a specific embodiment, and the reference to particularly preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention does not imply a limitation on the invention, and no such limitation is to be inferred. The invention is limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Moreover, these claims may refer to use “first”, “second”, etc. following with noun or element. Such terms should be understood as a nomenclature and should not be construed as giving the limitation on the number of the elements modified by such nomenclature unless specific number has been given. The abstract of the disclosure is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract, which may allow a searcher to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure of any patent issued from this disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it may not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Any advantages and benefits described may not apply to all embodiments of the invention. It should be appreciated that variations may be made in the embodiments described by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. Moreover, no element and component in the disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element or component is explicitly recited in the following claims.