Passive liquid collecting device
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Solution Overview
Problem
In microgravity environments, fluids in reservoirs tend to distribute unevenly, making it challenging to separate liquid and vapor refrigerants in two-phase chiller systems, which can lead to system damage or inefficiency when a mixture is drawn instead of pure liquid.
Innovation Solution
A passive liquid collecting device featuring a cylindrical reservoir with rigid structures and porous capillary media, where the rigid structures have pie-shaped designs with legs and ribs that facilitate liquid dispersion and collection into corner grooves, guiding liquid refrigerant to an outlet tube without external power, ensuring most refrigerant exits in liquid form.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If capillary material is used to separate liquid from vapor in microgravity, then liquid collection is improved, but manufacturing precision and design complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs capillary material with controlled porosity to separate liquid refrigerant from vapor in microgravity environments. The porous structure enables liquid collection through capillary action while allowing vapor to pass through, solving the liquid-vapor separation problem without requiring complex mechanical systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The capillary material is designed with varying pore sizes in different regions - larger pores at the inlet to capture dispersed liquid and smaller pores near the outlet to ensure proper liquid flow control. This spatial variation in local properties optimizes liquid collection while maintaining manufacturability.
2Ease of operation
If capillary material with decreasing pore size is used to guide liquid, then liquid guidance to collection location is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The capillary material incorporates spatially varying pore sizes where larger pores are positioned at the liquid dispersion zone and smaller pores are positioned at the collection zone. This local quality variation guides liquid flow passively through the material without requiring complex external control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The capillary structure utilizes its own inherent porosity gradient to guide and control liquid flow from the reservoir cavity to the collection point. The material serves itself by using capillary pressure differences created by the pore size variation to drive liquid movement without external power or control systems.
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 device effectively separates liquid from vapor refrigerant, ensuring efficient operation of two-phase chiller systems by ensuring a continuous flow of liquid refrigerant to the outlet tube, even in microgravity conditions, thus preventing system damage and maintaining efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
The capillary material can be arranged within a reservoir to gather dispersed liquid and channel it to a desired location. Capillary materials function in large part by porosity.
Implementation Method 2
Capillary materials function in large part by porosity. The use of the material requires certain design considerations to guide liquid to a specific location instead of simply collecting and retaining the liquid.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
AI summary
A passive liquid collecting device has a reservoir (54) with an outlet and one or more rigid structures (56) within the reservoir (54). The rigid structures (56) are configured to collect a liquid and direct the liquid to the outlet. Porous capillary media (64) are supported by the rigid structures (56).