1. A novel percussion type droplet-on-demand generator
- Author
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Taaha Hussain, Priyesh A. Patel, Ramanarayanan Balachandran, and Nicos Ladommatos
- Subjects
Chemistry ,business.industry ,Nozzle ,Electrical engineering ,Solenoid ,Mechanics ,Piezoelectricity ,law.invention ,Physics::Fluid Dynamics ,Generator (circuit theory) ,Momentum ,Surface tension ,law ,Physics::Atomic and Molecular Clusters ,Hammer ,business ,Body orifice - Abstract
Numerous engineering applications require generation of droplets on demand which are of high uniformity and constant size. The common method to produce droplets is to drive liquid at high pressure through a small orifice/nozzle. The liquid stream disintegrates into small droplets. However this method normally requires large volumes of liquid and is not suitable for applications where single droplets of constant size is required. Such applications require droplet-on-demand generators which commonly employ piezoelectric or pneumatic actuation. It is well known that piezoelectric generators are hard to employ at high pressure and, high temperature applications, and the pneumatic generators often produce satellite (secondary) droplets. This paper describes the development of a novel percussion type droplet-on-demand generator, which overcomes some of the above difficulties and is capable of producing single droplets on demand. The generator consists of a cylindrical liquid filled chamber with a small orifice at the bottom. The top of the chamber is covered with a thin flexible metal disc. A small metal pin is employed to hammer/impact the top metal surface to generate a pressure pulse inside the liquid chamber. The movement and the momentum of the metal pin are controlled using a solenoid device. The pressure pulse generated overcomes the surface tension of the liquid meniscus at the exit of the orifice and ejects a single droplet. The work presented in this paper will demonstrate the capabilities of the droplet generator.
- Published
- 2015
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