Compact Backflow Valve with Nested Air Gap Ports
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing backflow prevention systems require significant space, are expensive, and not easily movable, making them inefficient for environments with limited space and requiring frequent relocation, such as harbors, and they necessitate complex maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A compact backflow prevention valve with adjustable inlet and outlet flow paths, featuring interchangeable inserts and funnel portions, and strategically placed backflow outlet ports to ensure compliance with regulatory air gaps, allowing for easy portability and reduced maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an elevated storage cistern is used as backflow prevention device, then backflow prevention is achieved, but space requirements increase and portability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The backflow outlet ports are positioned within the chamber volume in a nested arrangement, allowing the air gap requirement to be satisfied within the compact valve body without requiring external elevated structures. The ports are arranged at different vertical levels within the chamber to create the required air gap while maintaining a small overall footprint.
2Reliability
If an elevated storage cistern is used as backflow prevention device, then backflow prevention is achieved, but device complexity and maintenance requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The backflow prevention function is extracted from a complex elevated cistern system and implemented within a simple valve body. The air gap mechanism is integrated directly into the valve chamber design, eliminating the need for separate elevated storage structures, overflow pipes, and ball valves, thereby reducing maintenance requirements.
3Volume of moving object
If backflow outlet ports are positioned close to the inlet, then device size is reduced, but air gap compliance becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The air gap requirement is satisfied by utilizing the vertical dimension within the compact chamber. The backflow outlet ports are positioned at a sufficient vertical distance below the inlet axis, creating the required air gap in the vertical direction while maintaining a compact overall valve size. This dimensional approach allows compliance without requiring large horizontal dimensions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The valve effectively prevents backflow while being cost-effective, portable, and easy to maintain, ensuring compliance with regulations and efficient water supply in various settings, including harbors and industrial sites.
Implementation Method 1
Water at mains pressure is fed from the mains supply through a servicing valve to an outlet in an elevated storage cistern. The cistern includes a ball valve to prevent overfilling of the cistern, and includes an overflow pipe through which water can flow if the cistern is overfilled, so that the water level in the cistern can never be higher than the level of the overflow pipe. A control valve is used to control the dispense of water from the cistern under gravity through a filling hose to a water tank on a boat.
Implementation Method 2
UK regulations require an air gap, in this example measured vertically, between the outlet and the maximum water level in the cistern. UK regulations specify different categories of backflow protection, for example Category 5, depending on the nature of the water storage and/or supply system to which mains water is being supplied. UK regulations specify different air gaps, for example a type AG air gap, according to the nature of the backflow prevention means.
Data Source
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AI summary
A backflow prevention valve (30) prevents backflow during the supply of water from a mains supply to a separate water system, for example a water tank on a boat. The backflow prevention valve (30) is provided comprising a valve body (32) defining a chamber (34), an inlet (36) opening into the chamber (34) and arranged on an inlet axis (38), an outlet (40) opening from the chamber (34) and arranged on an outlet axis (42), and a funnel arranged in the chamber (34) around the outlet (40). The outlet axis (42) is substantially collinear with the inlet axis (38). The funnel tapers from a first larger perimeter at a first end (48) to a second smaller perimeter at the outlet (40). The chamber (34) has one or more backflow outlet ports (52) arranged outside the first perimeter of the funnel.