Fluidic oscillator with resonant inertance and dynamic compliance circuit

Abstract

The fluidic oscillator consists of a resonant fluid circuit having a fluid inertance and a dynamic fluid compliance. The inertance is a conduit interconnecting two locations of a chamber on each side of a working fluid jet issuing into one end of the chamber, the inertance conduit serving to transfer working fluid between the two locations. Through one or more output orifices located approximately at the opposite end of the chamber, the fluid exits from a chamber exit region which is shaped to facilitate formation of a vortex (the dynamic compliance) from the entering fluid. The flow pattern in the chamber and particularly the vortex in the chamber exit region provide flow aspiration on one side and surplus of flow on the opposite side of the chamber, which effects accelerate and respectively decelerate the fluid in the inertance conduit such as to cause reversal of the vortex after a time delay given by the inertance. The vortex in the chamber exit region will thus cyclically alternate in velocity and direction of rotation to direct outflow through the output orifice such as to produce a cyclically repetitive side-to-side sweeping stream our spray pattern whose direction is determined, at any instant in time, as a function of the vectorial sum, at the output orifice, of the tangential vortex flow spin velocity vector and the static pressure vector as well as the dynamic pressure component, both directed radially from the vortex. By changing these parameters by suitable design measures and operating conditions and by appropriately configuring the oscillator, sweep angle, oscillation frequency, distribution, outflow velocity, break up into droplets, etc. can be readily controlled over large ranges.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.