Acoustic acceleration of fluid mixing in porous materials
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorIgor I. Fedchenia
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Abstract
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for uniformly mixing fluid phases entrained in a porous material. A mixer may have a vessel and at least one porous material held by the vessel. At least one actuator may be acoustically coupled with at least one wall of the vessel for generating a wave. The wave effects mixing of at least two fluids in the porous material. The actuator may be a linear motor actuated with a control signal of predetermined frequency. The actuator may have a number of actuator pairs each including respective first and second actuators at respective first and second sides of the vessel. The actuators may be hinged for reciprocal movement. The actuators may be actuated to form a compression-expansion wave to effect fluid motion in the porous material.
Claims20
A method for mixing at least two fluids in a porous material comprising:
- introducing the fluids into porous material held by a mixing vessel, said mixing vessel comprising:
- at least one inlet;
- at least one linear motor coupled to at least one actuator wherein said actuator is acoustically coupled to a wall of said vessel;
- and
- exciting said at least one linear motor with a control signal of predetermined frequency so as to form a compression/expansion wave determined by said actuator acoustic coupling and said predetermined frequency wherein fluid motion in the porous material within said vessel is effected to effect said mixing.
A method for operating a mixer, the mixer comprising:
- a vessel having a first side and a second side opposite the first side;
- a plurality of actuator pairs, each actuator pair including a first actuator at the first side and a second actuator at the second side, the first and second actuators hinged for reciprocal movement;
- a porous material held by the vessel;
- and
- at least one inlet for admitting fluids for combining,
- the method comprising:
- admitting at least two said fluids to the porous material through the inlet;
- actuating the actuators so that said reciprocal movement alternately applies force to each of a pair of acoustic coupling locations separated by a predefined distance so as to mix the at least two fluids in the porous material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.