Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Combining of separately supplied fluids – At or beyond outlet
Patent
1996-08-23
1998-09-22
Kashnikow, Andres
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Combining of separately supplied fluids
At or beyond outlet
239418, 239429, 239434, B05B 704
Patent
active
058102604
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to liquid distributors, and is primarily concerned with spray generators.
In this Specification, reference will often be made to air and water, since experiments to date have been conducted with them. But it should be understood that air, although the most common medium, may be replaced by other gas, or mixed with it, and water will generally be replaced by or dilute other liquid, including surfactant material.
Liquid sprays are used in a great number of fields, and while this invention has been developed first with an eye on agricultural spraying, clearly it could have many other applications, some of which will be mentioned later.
With many sprays, one wants very fine droplets to disperse as evenly as possible. But the finer they are, the more likely they are to drift and blow away. In agricultural spraying, conditions have to be very carefully chosen, but even so it has been estimated that perhaps only 30% of what is sprayed typically settles on target. This represents not only enormous waste, but also a considerable hazard, since some of the other 70% ends up in peoples' lungs or on their skin, and on vegetation or ground which may be harmed rather than helped by the spray liquid.
One way to keep a spray jet together is to project it at high speed. While that is acceptable for a few applications, it does not do for crop spraying and most other jobs. Not only does it demand considerable extra energy, but droplets travelling at high speed can damage tender crops or bounce off rather than settle.
The aim behind this invention was to provide a spray of moderate speed that can be composed of very fine droplets and yet which will keep together for a substantial throw. It should therefore be possible to control and direct it much better than most current sprays. But in conducting experiments it was also realized that other patterns of liquid distribution could be achieved.
According to the present invention, there is, provided a liquid distributor comprising a gas duct with a delivery end and means for projecting a substantially continuous stream of liquid into conjunction with the gas stream from the duct to direct and re-shape the liquid pattern.
With suitable relative velocities and sizes and shapes of apertures through which the air and water flow, it has been found that this can break up the water into extremely fine droplets and project them a considerable distance in the direction of the airstream in remarkably close confinement.
The projecting means preferably create the liquid stream symmetrical with respect to the gas stream. The projecting means can be arranged so that the liquid stream has a directional component transverse to the gas stream, parallel to the gas stream, and/or skew to the gas stream to create a swirl.
In one preferred form the delivery end is a slot to create a curtain of gas. This may be of substantially circular section, the liquid stream being at least mainly radially inwards towards the gas stream.
In another useful form the delivery end forms a gas stream of closed loop section, and at least some of the liquid stream will be at least mainly inwards towards the loop. But there could be a component of the liquid stream radially outwards from within the loop.
The gas duct can provide an additional, different speed gas stream co-axial within the first gas stream of annular section, and the different speed will preferably be higher than the speed of the first gas stream.
In a further arrangement, there are means for issuing another gas stream in a configuration to shroud the liquid pattern formed by the first gas stream and the liquid stream.
Preferably the projecting means deliver the liquid stream at a speed and in a quantity such that the gas stream breaks the liquid stream into droplets, thereby forming a spray generator. Furthermore, the relationship between the streams can be such that the droplets tend to cohere in clusters. Even though both flows are uniform, it has been demonstrated that, when they combine, a pulse characteristic is developed, and t
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Evans Robin O.
Flow Research Evaluation Diagnostics Limited
Kashnikow Andres
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