Liquid bath air filter
AssigneeUniversity of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsPaul R. Dominguez-Gutierrez, Tania Quesada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A liquid bath air filter (100), including: an air inlet tube (102) that defines an air inlet passage (108); a filtrate chamber body (120) that defines a filtrate chamber (142) configured to hold a liquid in a bottom thereof; and a flow laminator (150) configured to: receive air from the air inlet passage; be submerged in the liquid present in the filtrate chamber when the apparatus is in an upright position; reduce a Reynold's number of a flow of the air therethrough; and eject the flow into the liquid in the filtrate chamber.
Claims19
An apparatus, comprising:
- an air inlet tube that defines an air inlet passage;
- a filtrate chamber body that defines a filtrate chamber configured to hold a liquid in a lower portion thereof;
- and
- a flow laminator configured to:
- receive air from the air inlet passage;
- be submerged in the liquid present in the filtrate chamber when the apparatus is in an upright position;
- reduce a Reynold's number of a flow of the air therethrough;
- and eject the flow into the liquid in the filtrate chamber,
- wherein the filtrate chamber body comprises a lower portion, a middle portion, and an upper portion, the upper portion comprising a volume at least as large as a volume of the lower portion,
- wherein the filtrate chamber body comprises a drain-stopping conduit comprising an inlet in the middle portion and an outlet through a top of the filtrate chamber body, wherein when inverted the liquid flows from the lower portion to the upper portion where the liquid is trapped because the inlet in the middle portion is disposed above the liquid that is trapped in the upper portion.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a filtrate chamber body that defines a filtrate chamber comprising:
- an upper portion;
- a middle portion;
- a lower portion configured to hold a liquid;
- and a drain-stopping conduit comprising an inlet in the middle portion and an outlet through a top of the filtrate chamber body;
- an air inlet tube;
- a flow laminator configured to:
- receive air from the air inlet tube;
- be disposed in the lower portion;
- and reduce a Reynold's number of a flow of the air therethrough;
- and
- a flow circuit in which air flows into the air inlet tube, then through the flow laminator, then into the lower portion, then into the middle portion, then through the drain-stopping conduit, then through the outlet through the top of the filtrate chamber body;
- wherein when the apparatus is in an upright position and the liquid is disposed in the lower portion an outlet of the flow laminator is submerged in the liquid, and wherein in an upside-down position the liquid is retained in the upper portion and the flow circuit remains open.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.