MULTI-STAGE GAS KNIFE SYSTEM, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING OPTICAL INTEGRITY OF TARGET SURFACES

Abstract

The invention relates to a multi-stage air knife assembly (110), a system and method for maintaining the optical integrity of the target surface (4). The air knife assembly consists of a first-stage nozzle (3a) creating a background air stream layer close to the surface and a second-stage nozzle (3b) positioned at a stratification distance Δh, oriented at a spray angle α to create an additional air stream converging with the background air stream layer in the converging region near the wall (9). The converging adds near-surface momentum, maintains shear stress and thins, breaks or rolls the liquid film away from the preferred observation area (11). The system is controlled adaptively according to rain, crosswind, vehicle speed, image quality, pressure, flow rate or wiper status.

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