Objectives  To improve the vibration and noise of an air purifier employed in enclosed cabinet, the flow field and vibration are analyzed for the prototype and improved air purifier.

  Methods  First, theoretical research is used to analyze the intrinsic vibration mechanism of the prototype air purifier, then improved schemes are proposed which satisfy the requirements of six properties （i.e. reliability, maintainability, supportability, testability, safety and environmental adaptability） and type tests based on the guaranteed service, design and manufacturing experience. Finally, the air purifier is redesigned according to simulations in ANSYS Fluent and ABAQUS software.

  Results  It is demonstrated that under the premise of the same power consumption, aerodynamic characteristics, purification effects and size, the improved air purifier has significant advantages. The flow field becomes more stable with significantly fewer backflows; the natural frequencies and specific stiffness are increased remarkably; the vibration is reduced dramatically in the low frequency range (operating region); and the energy in the high frequency area is absorbed by the damping layer. The total energy is decreased by approximately 9 dB (10 Hz−10 kHz).

  Conclusions  The improved scheme is reasonable and evidently improves the vibration and noise of the device. This study has practical significance for the control of compartment environments and research on innocuous gas purification with high efficiency, low noise and low power consumption.