Methods and systems for creating aerosols
AssigneePalo Alto Research Center Incorporated
InventorsVICTOR BECK, DAVID MATHEW JOHNSON
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aerosols can be created by filament stretching and breaking of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids by applying a strain to and stretching the fluid. The fluid is stretched along a strain pathway and forms a fluid filament. The fluid filament is caused to break into droplets that can be harvested to form a mist or aerosol. Such a system for aerosol creation can include a pair of counter-rotating rollers that are positioned adjacent to each other that stretch the fluid or a pair of pistons that move toward and away from each other to stretch the fluid.
Claims24
An aerosol creation system, comprising:
- a pair of counter-rotating rollers that are positioned adjacent each other and define a nip between each other, the nip having an upstream side and a downstream side;
- a fluid source that coats at least one of the rollers with a fluid;
- and
- a driving element that drives the pair of counter-rotating rollers to rotate in counter rotation with respect to each other and causes the fluid coating to be drawn through the nip to the downstream side of the nip, the fluid stretched on the downstream side of the nip between respective surfaces of each of the counter-rotating rollers to form a fluid filament, the fluid filament stretched until the fluid filament breaks into a plurality of droplets.
A process of creating an aerosol, comprising:
- coating at least one of a pair of counter-rotating, adjacent rollers with a fluid, the pair of counter-rotating rollers defining a nip therebetween;
- rotating the counter-rotating rollers to cause the fluid to be drawn into an upstream side of the nip;
- causing fluid filaments of the fluid to form on a downstream side of the nip, the fluid filaments stretching between respective surfaces of the pair of counter-rotating rollers and breaking into droplets on the downstream side of the nip;
- and
- harvesting the droplets at the downstream side of the nip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.