US 8,123,502 B2Granted

Acoustic pump utilizing radial pressure oscillations

AssigneeThe Technology Partnership PLC

InventorsDavid Mark Blakey, John Matthew Somerville, James Edward McCrone, Justin Rorke Buckland

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Abstract

A fluid pump comprising one or more actuators, two end walls, a side wall; a cavity which, in use, contains fluid, the cavity having a substantially cylindrical shape bounded by the end walls and the side walls, at least two apertures through the cavity walls, at least one of which is a valved aperture, wherein the cavity radius, a, and height, h, satisfy the following inequalities: a/h is greater than 1.2; and h2/a is greater than 4×10−10 m; and wherein, in use, the actuator causes oscillatory motion of one or both end walls in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the end walls; whereby, in use, the axial oscillations of the end walls drive radial oscillations of fluid pressure in the cavity.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A fluid pump comprising:

one or more actuators;
two end walls;
a side wall;
a cavity which, in use, contains fluid, the cavity having a substantially cylindrical shape bounded by the end walls and the side wall;
at least two apertures through the cavity walls, at least one of which is a valved aperture;
wherein the cavity radius, a, and height, h, satisfy the following inequalities:
a
⁢
h
is greater than 1.2;
and
h
2
a
is greater than 4×10−10 m;
and
wherein, in use, the one or more actuators cause oscillatory motion of one or both end walls in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plane of the end walls;
whereby, in use, the axial oscillations of the end walls drive radial oscillations of fluid pressure in the cavity;
wherein the cavity radius, a, also satisfies the following inequality:
k
0
·
c_min
2
⁢
⁢
π
⁢
⁢
f
<
a
<
k
0
·
c_max
2
⁢
⁢
π
⁢
⁢
f
,
where c_min is 115 m/s, c_max is 1970 m/s, f is the operating frequency and k0 is a constant (k0=3.83);
and
wherein, in use, the motion of the driven end wall(s) and the pressure oscillations in the cavity are mode-shape matched and the frequency of the oscillatory motion is within 20% of the lowest resonant frequency of radial pressure oscillations in the cavity.

45 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.