초록 ▼

Process and apparatus for enhancing the erosive intensity of a high velocity liquid jet when the jet is impacted against a surface for cutting, cleaning, drilling or otherwise acting on the surface. A preferred method comprises the steps of forming a high velocity liquid jet, oscillating the velocit

Process and apparatus for enhancing the erosive intensity of a high velocity liquid jet when the jet is impacted against a surface for cutting, cleaning, drilling or otherwise acting on the surface. A preferred method comprises the steps of forming a high velocity liquid jet, oscillating the velocity of the jet at a preferred Strouhal number, and impinging the pulsed jet against a solid surface to be eroded. Typically the liquid jet is pulsed by oscillating the velocity of the jet mechanically or by hydrodynamic and acoustic interactions. The invention may be applied to enhance cavitation erosion in a cavitating liquid jet, or to modulate the velocity of a liquid jet exiting in a gas, causing it to form into discrete slugs, thereby producing an intermittent percussive effect.

대표청구항 ▼

Apparatus for producing a pulsed liquid jet exiting through an exit nozzle for eroding a solid surface, comprising: (a) means for forming a high velocity liquid jet; (b) acoustic-hydrodynamic oscillator means for oscillating the velocity of the jet at a Strouhal number within the range of from about

Apparatus for producing a pulsed liquid jet exiting through an exit nozzle for eroding a solid surface, comprising: (a) means for forming a high velocity liquid jet; (b) acoustic-hydrodynamic oscillator means for oscillating the velocity of the jet at a Strouhal number within the range of from about 0.2 to about 1.2; and (c) means for amplifying the jet velocity oscilations, said means for amplifying said oscillations including said exit nozzle, wherein the internal contour of said exit nozzle is adapted to provide feedback of the velocity oscillations in the jet to said oscillator means.