Fluidic Oscillator Enclosure Design for Spray Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional enclosures for fluidic oscillators are limited in design, failing to achieve desired spray characteristics such as uniform coverage, large droplet size, high velocity, and pulsating frequencies, particularly in applications like automotive windshield washing and showerheads, which also result in inefficient water usage and energy consumption.
Innovation Solution
The development of novel enclosures with strategically arranged passages and cavities that accommodate multiple fluidic oscillators, allowing for rear loading and unique geometrical configurations, enabling larger expansion angles and diverse spray distributions, including larger horizontal fan angles and pulsating frequencies, while simplifying fabrication and allowing for reduced flow rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If conventional enclosures for fluidic oscillators are used, then the spray coverage area is limited, but the enclosure design complexity remains simple
Solution Approach 1:
The enclosure is divided into a body portion and a cover portion that can be assembled together, allowing complex geometries to be manufactured more easily. Multiple passages are segmented and arranged in specific patterns to achieve comprehensive spray coverage without requiring a monolithic complex structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple fluidic oscillators are arranged in three-dimensional space within the enclosure, with passages extending in different directions and orientations. This spatial arrangement enables expanded spray coverage area by utilizing vertical and lateral dimensions rather than only horizontal expansion.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple fluidic oscillators are accommodated in the enclosure, then spray distribution versatility is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The enclosure design with multiple passages and cavities can accommodate different numbers and types of fluidic oscillators depending on application requirements. The same basic enclosure structure serves multiple functions by allowing configuration changes without requiring completely different manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The enclosure is designed as separable body and cover portions that can be manufactured independently and assembled, reducing manufacturing complexity. Each passage can be formed using standard molding techniques, and the modular design allows for easier fabrication compared to integrated complex structures.
3Ease of operation
If rear loading configuration is implemented, then ease of installation is improved, but internal passage design becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of loading fluidic oscillators from the front opening, the design allows rear loading through the cover portion. This inverted loading approach simplifies installation by providing access to the oscillators from the rear, while the internal passages are designed to accommodate this reverse loading sequence.
Solution Approach 2:
The passages are pre-configured in the body and cover portions during manufacturing, with alignment features and sealing surfaces prepared in advance. This preliminary preparation of the passage structure enables simple assembly and installation without requiring complex field modifications or adjustments.
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 new enclosures achieve improved spray performance with larger droplet sizes and velocities, reduced flow rates, and energy consumption, while maintaining tactile sensations, enabling efficient water use and versatile applications like shower massaging and rinsing, with enhanced control over spray distribution.
Implementation Method 1
Fluidic inserts or oscillators are well known for their ability to provide a wide range of distinctive liquid sprays by cyclically deflecting, without the use of mechanical moving parts, the flow of a liquid jet
Implementation Method 2
the droplet patterns illustrated represent the droplets produced during one complete cycle of the cyclically deflected liquid jet... the spray's area of coverage, the spatial distribution of droplets
Data Source
AI summary
An improved fluidic device that operates on a pressurized liquid flowing through it at a specified flow rate to generate an oscillating spray of liquid droplets having desired properties (e.g., average spatial distribution, size, velocity, frequency and wavelength of liquid droplets at a defined distance in front of the device) includes: (a) a plurality of fluidic oscillators, each having a channel that is part of a fluidic circuit for inducing oscillations in the pressurized liquid that flows through the oscillator, (b) a housing having an exterior surface that includes a front face with a center-point and a rear face, (c) a plurality of passages, each of which extends through the housing and intersects with its front face to define an outlet, with each passages configured to allow for the insertion of one of the plurality of fluidic oscillators into each of the plurality of passages, and (d) a geometrical arrangement of these outlets in the housing front face that is chosen so as to achieve the desired properties of the oscillating spray when the device is operating at its specified flow rate.