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.
Claims23
A mixer comprising:
- a vessel;
- at least one porous material held by the vessel;
- at least one actuator acoustically coupled with at least one wall of said vessel for generating a wave;
- and
- at least one inlet in said vessel for admitting to said porous material at least two fluids for combining, wherein said wave effects mixing of said at least two fluids in the at least one porous material.
A porous material mixer comprising:
- a vessel for holding at least one porous material;
- a plurality of actuator pairs, wherein each actuator pair comprises two member actuators and each actuator pair member is acoustically coupled with an opposing side of said vessel for generating a wave;
- and
- at least one inlet in said vessel for admitting to the porous material at least two fluids for combining, wherein said wave effects mixing of said at least two fluids.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.