Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
Design and Shape Optimisation of Nozzles for a Flat Air Bearing Device
H. Monfared, E. Eslamian and H. Shirvani
Department of Engineering and Built Environment, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 1SQ, UK
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 2018 4:132-142
Received: August 4, 2017 | Accepted: October 21, 2017 | Published: April 15, 2018
Abstract
This study offers a numerical and experimental study in the design and further shape optimisation of nozzles for a flat type air-bearing device which is supposed to be used for handling a certain magnitude of loads. Making use of pressurised air allows for the design of mechanical systems requiring handling heavy loads or extreme precision in positioning. In a design of flat type air-bearings, particularly when carrying heavy loads is considered, the shape of nozzles becomes very important. In order to analyse and further optimisation of the dimensions of a nozzle in this study, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis with k-ω turbulence modelling has been performed to simulate the supersonic fluid flow behaviour inside the chamber and divergent nozzle of the bearing device. Three different geometries with fixed inlet diameter of 2 mm and outlet diameters of 3, 6 and 12 mm were studied. An experimental investigation was conducted with the same nozzle geometries and also different nozzle numbers (and arrangements) to find the best option with respect to the performance in handling loads. Results from experimental study are in accordance with results of CFD analysis, making the numerical modeling a useful tool for a comparative study in this research to determine the optimum size and shape of nozzles as well as optimum pressure for a particular load.
Keywords:
Air bearing, experimental study, nozzle optimisation,
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Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests.
Open Access Policy
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Copyright
The authors have no competing interests.
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