Discharge Grill Vanes for Low-Resistance Humidified Airflow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing humidification and air cleaning apparatuses face challenges in minimizing droplet scattering to indoor spaces while maintaining air volume and reducing noise and power consumption, as conventional discharge humidification media obstruct air flow and increase resistance.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus incorporates a discharge grill with inclined vanes arranged in a staggered pattern, covering the discharge port to prevent droplet scattering and minimize air resistance, while allowing for efficient water supply and humidification, and features a separate water supply passage to prevent water overflow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a general mesh type discharge humidification medium is used to cover the entire discharge port, then droplet scattering is prevented, but air resistance increases and air volume is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The discharge port is divided into multiple discrete discharge holes instead of being covered by a continuous mesh. The discharge humidification medium is segmented into multiple vanes that are spaced apart, allowing air to pass through gaps between vanes while still intercepting droplets. This segmentation maintains droplet prevention functionality while significantly reducing air resistance and improving air volume flow.
Solution Approach 2:
The discharge humidification medium is designed with varying local properties - the vanes have specific thicknesses, spacing, and inclination angles optimized for different positions. The vanes are arranged to provide adequate droplet interception in critical areas while maintaining open pathways for air flow in less critical zones, achieving local optimization of both droplet prevention and air flow characteristics.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a discharge humidification medium is used to cover the discharge port, then droplet scattering is prevented, but noise and power consumption increase due to air resistance
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the discharge humidification medium into spaced vanes rather than using a continuous mesh, air flow resistance is dramatically reduced. This allows the air blower to operate with lower power consumption while maintaining effective droplet interception, directly addressing the energy loss issue.
Solution Approach 2:
The vanes are designed with specific parameters including optimized thickness, spacing distances, and inclination angles. These parameter variations are tuned to minimize air resistance and associated noise while preserving droplet scattering prevention capabilities, thereby reducing the power and noise penalties.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a discharge humidification medium is used to cover the discharge port, then droplet scattering is prevented, but noise increases due to air resistance
Solution Approach 1:
The segmented vane structure creates larger flow passages compared to a mesh, reducing turbulence and air resistance. This results in lower noise generation from air flow disturbances while maintaining droplet interception effectiveness, directly addressing the noise problem.
Solution Approach 2:
The vane spacing, thickness, and inclination angles are carefully parameterized to minimize turbulent flow and associated noise. By optimizing these geometric parameters, the system achieves quiet operation while preserving droplet scattering prevention functionality.
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
This design effectively reduces droplet scattering, enhances air volume, and decreases noise and power consumption compared to prior art, achieving efficient humidification and air cleaning with minimized resistance.
Implementation Method 1
a discharge grill disposed at the water tank and covering the discharge port... effectively reduces droplet scattering
Implementation Method 2
humidification medium disposed at the air humidification inlet and wetted with water... allowing water to naturally evaporate from a wet humidification medium
Data Source
AI summary
A humidification and air cleaning apparatus is provided that may include a water tank having a discharge port which is open toward an upper side, and a discharge grill disposed at the water tank and covering the discharge port. The discharge grill may have a plurality of vanes disposed at the discharge port and spaced apart from each other, and when viewed from a top, overlap each other to cover the discharge port. An edge of a vane may overlap an edge of an adjacent vane, thereby minimizing scattering of droplets to an indoor space while minimizing resistance of discharged air.