Laminar Microjet Atomizer and
Method of Aerial Spraying of Liquids
"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe."
"You take the red pill and
you stay in Wonderland and I'll show you how deep the
rabbit-hole goes."
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United States Patent |
4,412,654 |
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Yates , et al. |
November 1, 1983 |
http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1
&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&
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Abstract
A laminar microjet atomizer and method of aerial spraying involve the use of a streamlined body having a slot in the trailing edge thereof to afford a quiescent zone within the wing and into which liquid for spraying is introduced. The liquid flows from a source through a small diameter orifice having a discharge end disposed in the quiet zone well upstream of the trailing edge. The liquid released into the quiet zone in the slot forms drops characteristic of laminar flow. Those drops then flow from the slot at the trailing edge of the streamlined body and discharge into the slipstream for free distribution.
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Inventors: |
Yates; Wesley E. (Davis, CA); Cowden; Robert E. (Davis, CA); Akesson; Norman B. (Davis, CA); Horgan; Paul M. (Woodland, CA) |
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Assignee: |
The Regents of the University of California (Berkeley, CA) |
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Appl. No.: |
301432 |
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Filed: |
September 11, 1981 |
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Current U.S. Class: |
239/171; 239/597 |
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Intern'l Class: |
B64D 001/18 |
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Field of Search: |
239/597,171,568,434.5 |
References Cited [Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
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Nov., 1968 |
Waldrum |
239/171. |
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Jun., 1975 |
Brown |
239/171. |
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Nov., 1976 |
Kitterman |
239/171. |
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Foreign Patent Documents |
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1507607 |
Apr., 1978 |
GB |
239/171. |
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Other References
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Primary Examiner: Love; John J.
Assistant Examiner: Rastello; Jon M.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Lothrop & West
Goverment Interests
This invention was made with Goverment support under grant No. 23-181,
awarded by the Department of Agriculture. The Government has certain
rights in this invention.
Claims
We claim:
1. A laminar microjet atomizer comprising a hollow support of a
streamlined configuration having an upstream portion adapted to lead
in a predetermined direction of advance and having a closed leading
edge and an open trailing edge, said trailing edge being bifurcated to
establish a slot, a source of spray liquid within said hollow support,
and means within said hollow support defining a small orifice open to
said source and open opposite to said predetermined direction and
disposed well upstream of said slot.
2. A device as in claim 1 including a plurality of said discharge
orifices arranged parallel to each other and open a direction opposite
in said predetermined direction and substantially in a common plane
and all within said hollow support.
3. A device as in claim 2 in which all of said discharge orifices
terminate in substantially the same transverse plane spaced upstream
of said trailing edge.
4. A device as in claim 1 in which said orifice terminates within said
support at a point substantially spaced in said predetermined
direction upstream of and away from high velocity currents moving past
said trailing edge of said streamlined section of said support.
Description
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A closed front, hollow airfoil shaped body such as an airplane wing
has an open slot at the trailing edge thereof. Liquid from a source in
the streamlined body is released through one or more small orifices in
a transverse plate well within the hollow body. The orifice axes
extend in the direction of advance. The orifices are located in a
quiet or protected zone within the body in advance of and opening
through the slot in the trailing edge thereof.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a view in isometric perspective, portions being broken away
to reduce the figure size and other portions being broken away,
showing the interior construction of the atomizing apparatus of the
invention incorporated with a specially formed streamlined body,
particularly an aircraft wing.
FIG. 2 is a cross-section, the plane of which is indicated by the line
2--2 of FIG. 1.
It is to be noted that the drawings herein are not to scale or are not
dimensional since many of the dimensions and relationships herein are
too small to be shown to scale.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
There is a considerable need for the careful release of spray
materials, usually in agricultural areas, and for various reasons.
This is ordinarily accomplished by releasing the spray liquid from an
airplane flying over the desired areas. Customarily, the drop
formation is haphazard or random so that the spray does not effectuate
the intended purposes as well as desired. It has been determined that
much of the difficulty arises from random or inconsistent and
uncontrolled formation of liquid droplets for the spray.
In order to overcome the problems of aerial spraying and to provide an
improved spray formation and production of an improved spray pattern,
we have provided a particular streamlined body such as an aircraft
wing 6. While the streamlined body may be of any sort and may be used
in various environments, the arrangement herein is readily adapted for
use in an airplane and so is described in that environment. This wing
may be part of a usual aircraft structure, diagrammatically
illustrated at 7, and has the customary streamlined configuration in
end elevation. The wing departs from the normal shape in that while
the closed leading edge 8 of the wing is standard, the trailing edge 9
thereof is made up of an upper edge 11 and a spaced, lower edge 12
lying on opposite sides of an open slot 13. The slot opens into the
undisturbed, quiet interior 14 of the wing and terminates rather
abruptly in a transverse vertical plane at the trailing margin of the
wing.
In the interior of the wing there is provided a reservoir 15 or source
for liquid to be sprayed. Conveniently, this is a transversely
extending tube square in cross-section to provide a trailing face 16.
The liquid discharges from the tube 15 through a plurality of
relatively small orifices 17 etched through the face 16 and arranged
in a transverse line and with the axis of each orifice disposed
longitudinally in a horizontal plane. The orifices are of the order of
100 microns in diameter and open within the interior of the wing and
are spaced substantially from the trailing edge 9 thereof and within a
quiet zone 18. The orifices 17 are all in substantially the same
transverse vertical plane so that they all are well ahead of and out
of the slipstream of the wing. They all are well within the quiet or
protected volume inside the wing itself.
In the use of the device in a high velocity air stream; for example,
with the wing flying, liquid flows out in a laminar fashion through
the parallel orifices 17 and forms laminar liquid jets 19 that break
up longitudinally into drops 20 of the generally desired spherical
form. That is because the drop formation is not subject to extraneous
aerodynamic forces. The drops form spherically in a protected, laminar
flow position. The droplets travel rearwardly, as shown, and finally
emerge from the interior of the wing. They emerge through the slot 13
at the trailing edge of the wing and only then become subject to the
high velocity but low turbulence airstream behind the wing. The
emerged drops are accelerated smoothly in line. Any small satellite
drops coalesce with the larger droplets due to the different drag
forces on the drops. Having started substantially at a uniform
location as laminar jets in a quiet area, the jets tend to disperse
quite uniformly. This provides an ultimate nearly uniform size of
drops of the desired nature as the uniform droplets leave the spray
device consistently to settle on the area being sprayed.
The method of the invention is concomitant with the structure provided
and includes the origination of drops from relatively small orifices
open to a liquid reservoir. The drops form in a protected zone so that
their shape is not disturbed during formation by turbulent, ambient
conditions. The drops so formed in a laminar flow region are then
released into non-turbulent zones behind the streamlined body for
deposition.
It is helpful under certain circumstances to vary the operation by
providing within the reservoir 15 or at the orifices, a variation in
internal pressure or a vibration to afford a pulsing effect on the
liquid. This is accomplished by any appropriate means (not shown) such
as a vibrating diaphragm or the like. The vibration or pulsing is not
always utilized, but under certain circumstances and with certain
materials, is found to be helpful.