Method and apparatus for aeration using flexible blade impeller
AssigneeDBS Manufacturing, Inc.
InventorRichard Nils Young
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An impeller having flexible impeller blades with a stiffness which allows the blades to flex into a backward-curved impeller configuration at the maximum intended rotational speed of operation, and to return to a more radial blade configuration at lower rotational speeds, thereby enabling efficient operation at a broad range of rotational speeds.
Claims17
An aeration impeller for inducing a local flow velocity in a fluid, said apparatus comprising:
- (a) a hub portion for connection to a drive means for rotationally driving said aeration impeller at a rotational drive speed;
- (b) at least one flexible impeller blade connected to said hub portion, wherein said at least one flexible impeller blade has a stiffness allowing flexure between a first blade configuration when said aeration impeller is stationary and a second blade configuration when said aeration impeller is driven at the rotational drive speed and wherein the stiffness of said at least one flexible impeller blade is selected to maintain a substantially constant local flow velocity as the rotational drive speed varies within a range.
An aeration impeller for aerating a liquid by inducing a local flow velocity in a portion of the liquid, said impeller comprising:
- (a) a plurality of flexible impeller blades, each having a stiffness allowing flexure between a first blade configuration and a second blade configuration, and wherein said stiffness of each of said plurality of flexible impeller blades is selected to maintain a substantially constant local flow velocity as the rotational drive speed varies within a range;
- (b) coupling means for connecting said plurality of flexible impeller blades to a drive means for driving said impeller at a rotational drive speed;
- and
- (c) flexure means for controlling the movement of said plurality of flexible impeller blades between the first blade configuration and the second blade configuration.
A method of aerating a liquid using an impeller, said method comprising:
- (a) driving the impeller at a rotational drive speed adjacent a surface portion of the liquid;
- (b) inducing a local flow velocity in a portion of the surface of the liquid;
- and
- (c) flexing at least one blade portion of the impeller in response to the rotational drive speed to maintain the local flow velocity substantially constant as the rotational drive speed varies within a range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.