Flow Diffuser for Uniform Filter Cake Measurement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for measuring the compressibility and permeability of filter cakes are limited by edge effects and require large volumes of material and lengthy test times, making them inefficient for miniaturized and rapid laboratory analysis.
Innovation Solution
A device with a flow diffuser that distributes fluid flow evenly across the cake, reducing edge effects and allowing for smaller cake volumes and faster test times, using a pipeline with a coupling device that has divergent channels to promote uniform flow and homogeneity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a piston is gradually lowered into a cylindrical cell to compress the cake, then the compressibility and permeability can be measured, but the cell diameter must be at least 5 cm to avoid edge effects, requiring large volumes of material and lengthy test times
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the filtration process into two distinct stages: a prefiltration stage that captures coarse particles and forms an initial cake layer, followed by a main filtration stage that forms the final homogeneous cake. This segmentation allows the main cake to be formed under optimized conditions that eliminate edge effects without requiring large cell diameters, thus reducing the volume of material needed while maintaining measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The prefiltration stage acts as a preliminary action that prepares the filter surface by forming an initial cake layer before the main filtration process. This preliminary cake layer ensures uniform flow distribution during the main filtration stage, eliminating the need for large cell diameters to avoid edge effects, thereby reducing the required volume of material while maintaining measurement accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If a piston is gradually lowered into a cylindrical cell to compress the cake, then the compressibility and permeability can be measured, but the test duration extends to several days
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the filtration into prefiltration and main filtration stages, the invention enables rapid formation of a homogeneous cake during the main stage under optimized conditions. This eliminates the need for prolonged compression tests, reducing test duration from several days to significantly shorter periods while maintaining measurement precision through the homogeneous cake structure achieved by the two-stage process.
Solution Approach 2:
The prefiltration stage performs the preliminary action of forming an initial cake layer that ensures uniform flow distribution. This preliminary preparation allows the main filtration stage to proceed rapidly with optimized parameters, producing a homogeneous cake that enables quick and accurate compressibility and permeability measurements, thereby dramatically reducing the overall test duration while maintaining measurement precision.
3Loss of time
If vacuum filtration is used instead of a piston, then the test time is reduced, but the pressure range between 0 and 1 bar is too narrow to obtain compressibility parameters
Solution Approach 1:
The invention employs a dynamic pressure application system that can rapidly adjust and maintain precise pressure levels during the two-stage filtration process. This dynamic control enables the system to operate efficiently at low pressures during prefiltration and then transition to the main filtration stage with optimized pressure parameters, achieving both rapid test execution and comprehensive compressibility measurement across the necessary pressure range.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes parameter changes by implementing distinct pressure regimes for the two filtration stages. The prefiltration stage operates under one pressure condition to form the initial cake, while the main filtration stage operates under optimized pressure conditions that enable rapid cake formation with homogeneous structure. This parameter optimization allows the system to achieve both reduced test duration and adequate pressure range for compressibility measurements.
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
Enables precise measurement of cake properties with reduced edge effects, allowing for miniaturized and rapid analysis using smaller cake volumes and shorter test times, while maintaining measurement accuracy and safety through remote manipulation.
Implementation Method 1
a flow diffuser that distributes fluid flow evenly across the cake, reducing edge effects and allowing for smaller cake volumes and faster test times
Implementation Method 2
a filter retaining solid particles and forming a filter cake
Implementation Method 3
Successive pressure ramps are applied to the piston to progressively compress the cake, causing it to gradually release the liquid it contains
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~5
AI summary
In order to obtain a cake of solid particles recovered from suspensions in a liquid, the particles accumulating behind a filter (15) that the liquid penetrates, the connection to a liquid inlet duct (28) into a cylindrical chamber (30) comprises a diffusor (29) that has divergent channels (31) for expanding the flow and rendering the speed and rate of flow uniform in the section of the chamber (30), promoting in particular the peripheral flow, such that a cake having uniform properties is obtained.