Membrane Test Leak Structure for Stable Calibration Flow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing test leakage devices face challenges in maintaining a stable leakage rate due to variations in membrane wetting by liquid or vapor, which affects the accuracy of gas leak detection and calibration.
Innovation Solution
The test leakage device design features a membrane positioned within a base, with inner side walls that taper conically towards the membrane, ensuring uniform wetting by gravity-driven fluid flow, and includes spacers to prevent contact with the test chamber bottom, facilitating consistent fluid distribution and escape through the membrane.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the membrane is placed in a horizontal test leakage device, then the device structure is simple, but the membrane wetting is uneven causing unstable leakage rate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an asymmetric tapered interior space where the cross-sectional area decreases from the cover toward the base. This asymmetric geometry creates a funnelling effect that directs liquid flow toward the membrane regardless of the device's orientation, ensuring uniform membrane wetting while maintaining structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a dimensional element by creating a tapered three-dimensional interior space rather than a simple cylindrical or rectangular chamber. This dimensional change in the interior space geometry enables gravity-assisted liquid flow distribution that ensures uniform membrane contact without complex mechanical components.
2Reliability
If the test fluid storage volume is large, then the membrane can be sufficiently wetted, but the device volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a tapered conical or frustoconical interior space geometry that efficiently directs liquid flow toward the membrane. This curved tapered shape maximizes liquid flow distribution to the membrane surface while minimizing the required liquid storage volume compared to straight-cylindrical geometries.
Solution Approach 2:
The interior space is segmented into different volumetric zones along the taper, with the smaller volume near the membrane providing sufficient wetting fluid while the overall device maintains a compact form factor. The tapered geometry naturally segments the fluid distribution pathway to ensure adequate membrane contact with minimal fluid volume.
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
Ensures a stable and uniform leakage rate by uniformly wetting the membrane, enhancing the accuracy and reliability of gas leak detection and calibration processes.
Implementation Method 1
mutually opposite sections of the inner side of the side wall are spaced farther from each other in the region of the cover than in the region of the base, so that the test fluid contained in the interior space is guided by gravity along the sections of the side wall towards the membrane
Implementation Method 2
The test leakage device is provided with a membrane permeable to the test gas or to components of the test liquid, so that the test gas or components of the test liquid can escape from the test leakage device through the membrane
Implementation Method 3
the leakage rate of which depends on the permeability of the membrane body to the respective test gas or test fluid, the membrane temperature, the temperature and the vapor pressure of the test gas/test fluid
Data Source
AI summary
In a test leakage device (10) for testing the functionality and for calibrating a gas leak detection device having an evacuable test chamber (34) for receiving a test object and the test leakage device (10), wherein the test leakage device (10) has a base (12), a cover (16) and at least one side wall (14) connecting the base (12) to the cover (16), which surround an interior space (20) which can be filled with a test gas or a test liquid, provision is made for the base (12) to have a membrane (24) which is permeable to the test gas or constituents of the test liquid, and for mutually opposite sections of that inner side (18) of the side wall (14) which faces the interior space (20) to be at a greater distance from one another in the region of the cover than in the region of the base.