Removal of Particles from Solid Surfaces Using High Speed Air Jet

Abstract

Outline of the removal of discrete solid particles adhered to a solid surface using a high-speed impinging air jet is introduced with particular attention to the effect of operating conditions on removal efficiency. The operating conditions described in detail here are the air pressure in the jet nozzle and the distance between the nozzle tip and the surface. It was shown that the effect of the air pressure and the distance could be evaluated from the dynamic pressure of air jet which can be estimated from analytical equations based on fluid dynamics and thermodynamics. This means that the removal performance of a nozzle can be expressed by an index reflecting time averaged flow characteristics. In addition, the improvement in removal performance of the pulsed air jet method is also introduced. These results imply that flow fluctuation characteristics dominate the removal efficiency.