Fluid stream powered pulse generating fluidic oscillator

A method of producing fluidic pulses, comprising;

• supplying a selected fluid under pressure to a fluid inlet channel in a first leg of a fluidic circuit;
• producing a fluid jet at a downstream end of said first leg channel at a junction with fluid channels in second and third legs, respectively, of said fluidic circuit, wherein said fluid channels in said first, second and third legs form a Y shaped junction and said second and third leg channels diverge at first and second angles, respectively, from the direction of said first leg channel on opposite sides of the direction of said fluid jet, and wherein said second leg channel is in fluid communication with a vent connecting said second leg channel through a selectively configurable interconnect channel to said distal end of said third leg channel ;
• aligning said third leg channel at a slightly greater angle than the angle of said second leg channel with respect to the direction of said fluid jet from said first leg channel,
• causing the inlet fluid jet flow from said first channel to be attached to a channel wall leading into said second leg channel to thereby bias inlet fluid flow of said fluid jet towards said second leg channel at the Y junction;
• terminating a distal end of said second leg channel in fluid communication with a fluid-tight container defining a blind volume;
• causing inlet fluid flow to fill said blind volume and to thereby increase the pressure within it until a critical pressure is reached;
• causing, once the critical pressure in the blind volume has been achieved, the fluid flow at the Y junction to switch into said third leg channel and to flow through said third leg channel to an outlet to produce an outlet fluid flow until the pressure in said blind volume has been reduced;
• and
• thereafter causing said inlet fluid flow to switch back to said second fluid channel until said critical pressure in said blind volume has been reached, whereby continued switching of said fluid flow between biased flow into second leg and critical pressure-directed flow to third leg repeats produces a pulsed outlet flow at the outlet of said third leg channel.

A fluidic oscillator configured to generate pulsed gas jets having controllable periodic pulsed flow, said oscillator comprising:

• a switching junction region having an inlet port that allows a pressurized fluid to enter and flow through said oscillator,
• an exhaust passage having an inlet sidewall that forms a first boundary wall of said switching junction region and terminates distally in an exhaust passage outlet;
• a container passage having a sidewall that forms a second boundary wall of said switching junction region, a blind volume container connected to the distal end of said container passage, wherein said container passage is in fluid communication with a selectively configurable vent and gas passage which terminates at said exhaust passage outlet;
• wherein said blind volume container and its contents are configured to provide pulsed gas jets having a selected pulse frequency controlled by said container's blind volume which provides a selected compliance,
• and said exhaust passage outlet is configured to allow pulsed fluid flow with said selected pulse frequency from said oscillator.