Fluid handling – Processes
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-25
2004-07-27
Michalsky, Gerald A. (Department: 3753)
Fluid handling
Processes
C137S132000, C137S142000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06766817
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to fluid delivery methods and systems. The present invention also relates to methods and systems for hydrodynamically harnessing the unsaturated flow of fluid. The present invention additionally relates to the geometry of physical macro and microstructures of porosity for fluid conduction and retention as unsaturated hydric condition.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Fluid delivery methods and systems are highly desirable for irrigation, filtration, fluid supply, fluid recharging and other fluid delivery purposes. The ability to deliver proper amounts of fluid to plants, chambers, compartments or other devices in a constant and controlled manner is particularly important for maintaining constant plant growth or supplying liquid to devices that require fluid to function properly. Fluids in general need to move from one place to another in nature as well as in innumerous technological processes. Fluids may be required in places where the availability of fluid is not expected (i.e., supply). Fluids may also be undesired in places where the fluid is already in place (i.e., drainage). Maintaining the fluid cycling dynamically permits the transference of substances in solutions moving from place to place, such as the internal functioning of multicellular organisms. The process of moving fluid as unsaturated flow also offers important features associated with characteristics, including the complex hydrodynamic interaction of fluid in the liquid phase in association with the spatially delineated porosity of the solid phase.
Fluid movement is also required to move substances in or out of solutions or which may be suspended in a flow. Bulk movement of fluids has been performed efficiently for centuries inside tubular cylindrical objects, such as pipes. Often, however, fluids are required to be delivered in very small amounts at steady ratios with a high degree of control governed by an associated fluid or liquid matric potential. Self-sustaining capabilities controlled by demand are also desired in fluid delivery systems, along with the ability to maintain ratios of displacement with the porosity of solid and air phases for efficient use. Field irrigation has not yet attained such advancement because the soil is not connected internally to the hose by any special porous interface. This particular need can be observed within plants and animals in biological systems, in the containerized plant industry, printing technology, writing tools technology, agricultural applications (i.e., irrigation/drainage), fluid-filtering, biotechnology-like ion-exchange chromatography, the chemical industries, and so forth.
A fluid that possesses a positive pressure can be generally defined in the field of hydrology as saturated fluid. Likewise, a fluid that has a negative pressure (i.e., or suction) can be generally defined as an unsaturated fluid. Fluid matric potential can be negative or positive. For example, water standing freely at an open lake, can be said to stand under a gravity pull. The top surface of the liquid of such water accounts for zero pressure known as the water table or hydraulic head. Below the water table, the water matric potential (pressure) is generally positive because the weight of the water increases according to parameters of force per unit of area. When water rises through a capillary tube or any other porosity, the water matric potential (e.g., conventionally negative pressure or suction) is negative because the solid phase attracts the water upward relieving part of its gravitational pull to the bearing weight. The suction power comes from the amount of attraction in the solid phase per unit of volume in the porosity.
A tube is a perfect geometrical figure to move bulk fluids from one place to another. For unsaturated flow, however, a tube is restricted because it will not permit lateral flow of fluid in the tube walls leading to anisotropic unsaturated flow with a unique longitudinal direction. Tube geometry is very important when considering applications of fluid delivery and control involving saturated conditions, such as, for example in pipes. The wall impermeability associated with tube geometry thus becomes an important factor in preventing fluid loss and withstanding a high range of pressure variation. In such a situation, fluids can move safely in or out only through associated dead ends of an empty tube or cylinder.
Random irregular porous systems utilized for unsaturated flow employ general principles of capillary action, which require that the tube geometry fit properly to the porosity, which is generally analogous to dimensions associated between capillary tubes and the voids in the random porosity. Random porosity has an irregular shape and a highly variable continuity in the geometrical format of the void space, which does not fit to the cylindrical spatial geometry of capillary tubes. This misunderstanding still holds true due to the fact that both capillary tubes and porosity voids are affected by the size of pores to retain and move fluids as unsaturated conditions. Consequently, an enhanced porosity for unsaturated flow that deals more clearly with the spatial geometry is required. This enhanced porosity becomes highly relevant when moving fluids between different locations by unsaturated conditions if reliability is required in the flow and control of fluid dynamic properties.
When fluids move as unsaturated flow, they are generally affected by the porosity geometry, which reduces the internal cohesion of the fluid, thereby making the fluid move in response to a gradient of solid attraction affecting the fluid matric potential. Continuity pattern is an important factor to develop reliability in unsaturated flow. Continuous parallel solid tube-like structures offer this feature of regular continuity, thereby preventing dead ends or stagnant regions common to the random microporosity. The system becomes even more complex because the fluid-holding capacity of the porosity has a connective effect of inner fluid adhesion-cohesion, pulling the molecules down or up. Using common cords braided with solid cylinders of synthetic fibers, a maximum capillary rise of near two feet has been registered.
Specialized scientific literature about unsaturated zones also recognizes this shortcoming. For example: “Several differences and complications must be considered. One complication is that concepts of unsaturated flow are not as fully developed as those for saturated flow, nor are they as easily applied.” (See Dominico & Schwartz, 1990. Physical and Chemical Hydrogeology. Pg. 88. Wiley). Concepts of unsaturated flow have not been fully developed to date, because the “capillary action” utilized to measure the adhesion-cohesion force of porosity is restrained by capillary tube geometry conceptions. The term “capillary action” has been wrongly utilized in the art as a synonym for unsaturated flow, which results in an insinuation that the tube geometry conception captures this phenomenon when in truth it does not.
The present inventor disclosed a one-way upward capillary conductor in a Brazilian patent application,
Artificial System to Grow Plants
, BR P1980367, Apr. 4, 1998. The configuration disclosed in BR P1980367 is limited because it only permits liquid to flow upward from saturated to unsaturated zones utilizing a capillary device, which implies a type of tubular structure. The capillary conductor claimed in the Brazilian patent application has been found to contain faulty functioning by suggesting the use of an external constriction layer and an internal longitudinal flow layer. Two layers in the conductor have led to malfunctioning by bringing together multiple differential unsaturated porous media, which thereby highly impairs flow connectivity.
Unsaturated flow is extremely dependent on porosity continuity. All devices using more than one porous physical structure media for movement of unsaturated fluid flow are highly prone to malfunctioning because of the potential for microscopic cracks or interruptions in the
Lopez Kermit D.
Michalsky Gerald A.
Ortiz Luis M.
Ortiz & Lopez PLLC
Tubarc Technologies, LLC
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