Perforated sheet stock flow restrictor

• US 4,456,033 A
• Filed: 10/09/1981
• Issued: 06/26/1984
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/1981
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: VACCO Industries, Inc. (ESCO Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VACCO Industries, Inc. (ESCO Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Keskinen, Alan, Kay, George
• Primary Examiner(s): Marcus, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thronson, Mark
• Application Number:
  US06/310,098
• Time in Patent Office: 991 Days
• Field of Search: 137/625.3, 137/625.37, 137/14, 138/38, 138/42, 138/37, 138/40, 138/41, 138/43, 251/127, 181/268
• US Class Current: 138/42
• CPC Class Codes: F16K 47/08 for decreasing pressure or noise level and having a throttling member separate from the closure member , e.g. screens, slots, labyrinths
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/0396 Involving pressure control
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/86734 With metering feature
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/86791 Piston

Abstract

A flow restrictor to minimize noise and cavitation, or other adverse effects, in regulating the flow of a high pressure fluid. The restrictor defines a myriad of tortuous, dissimilar, intertwined, and commingled energy dissipating chambered flow paths edgewise through a stack of sheets of perforated stock material. Adjacent sheets have their perforations out of registration with one another, the inlet and outlet to the restrictor being edgewise through the stack through open-sided ones of the perforations of the several sheets of stock.

Claims

1. A sound suppressing flow restrictor, of flat form for edgewise conducting therethrough of a pressurized fluid relatively noiselessly to a substantial pressure drop, comprising:

a pair of flat sheets of planar material each having a plurality of perforations of uniform size, each of said sheets having said perforations equally spaced apart along at least two axes;

said pair of sheets being stacked together in an eccentric relationship of their perforations such that each perforation of one sheet overlies a plurality of perforations of the other sheet to define a plurality of orifices through which said perforations have fluid communication with one another;

said stacked pair of sheets having substantially the same planform and being stacked together in registration of their planforms;

said planforms being such that opposite sides of each of said pair of sheets includes randomly arranged open-sided ones of said perforations to define edgewise randomly arranged inlets and randomly arranged outlets in each of said stacked sheets;

a pair of solid barrier plates between which said pair of sheets are stacked, said barrier plates confining flow of a fluid to edgewise passage through said restrictor in the planes of said flat sheets only through said perforations and orifices defined by said perforations; and

,

said eccentric relationship of said perforations being such that along each line of flow of a fluid between said inlets and said outlets, said line of flow intersects the series of said orifices therealong in a pattern of varying orientations relative to said orifices that is different from that of adjacent lines of flow whereby said sheets adapted for being set in any one of a number of pre-determined eccentric relationships adapted for conducting either non-compressible or compressible fluids between said randomly arranged inlets and said randomly arranged outlets.

2. The flow restrictor of claim 1 wherein:

said pair of sheets both have said perforations of the same uniform size and identically equally spaced apart.

3. The flow restrictor of claim 2 wherein:

said perforations are of hexagonal configuration.

4. The flow restrictor of claim 3 wherein:

said perforations are in a staggered pattern such that an adjacent pair of perforations have a side in common.

5. A flow restrictor as in claim 1 wherein:

said perforations are non-circular in configuration.

6. A flow restrictor as in claim 1 wherein:

said perforations are polygonal in configuration.

7. A sound suppressing flow restrictor for conducting a pressurized fluid relatively noiselessly through a substantial pressure drop, comprising:

a housing having fluid inlet and outlet ports and a fluid passage communicating said ports;

an annular flow restrictor mounted in said passage for conducting a fluid generally radially therethrough from said inlet port to said outlet port;

said restrictor having a plurality of randomly arranged inlets and a plurality of randomly arranged outlets; and

,

means in said restrictor comprising a concentrically stacked plurality of flat sheets of a sheet material defining a myriad of generally radially extending and laterally intercommunicating, chambered, tortuous fluid passages through said flow restrictor, said tortuous fluid passages having dissimilarly spaced bars and dissimilarly shaped orifices defined by eccentrically overlapping perforations in said flat sheets of sheet material along different generally radial lines of flow such that each radial line of fluid passage is different from every other radial line of passage within a quadrant of said annular flow restrictor whereby said sheets adapted for being set in any one of a number of pre-determined eccentric relationships adapted for conducting non-compressible or compressible fluids between said randomly arranged inlets and said randomly arranged outlets.

8. A flow restrictor as in claim 7 wherein:

said means comprises two offset sheets of said sheet material that are formed with a plurality of hexagonal perforations.

9. A flow restrictor as in claim 8 wherein:

said two sheets of perforated sheet material have a staggered configuration of said hexagonal perforations.

10. A flow restrictor as in claim 9 wherein:

said two sheets are offset approximately the length of one bar, in the direction of a bar.

11. A flow restrictor as in claim 7 wherein:

said means comprises two offset sets of said sheet material having a plurality of equally spaced apart noncircular perforations.

12. A flow restrictor as in claim 7 wherein:

said means comprises two offset sets of said sheet material having a plurality of equally spaced apart perforations of polygonal configuration.

13. A method of restricting the flow of and inducing a pressure drop in a high pressure fluid, comprising:

providing at least two planar sheets, each of said sheets having a pluraliiy of uniformly distributed perforations;

eccentrically stacking said sheets such that each perforation of one sheet overlies a plurality of perforations of the other sheet to define a plurality of orifices permitting fluid communication, each of said sheets includes randomly arranged opensided ones of said perforations to define edgewise randomly arranged inlets and randomly arranged outlets in each of said sheets;

disposing said attacked sheets between a parallel pair of solid plates for thereby defining a flow restrictor having an inlet communicating with said randomly arranged inlets of said sheets and an outlet communicating with said randomly arranged outlets of said sheets;

flowing the fluid between said parallel pair of solid plates, between said inlet and said outlet;

setting said sheets in a pre-selected one of a number of pre-determined eccentric relationships adapted for conducting non-compressible or compressible fluids between said randomly arranged inlet and said randomly arranged outlets; and

,

between said inlet and said outlet, progressively dividing and recombining the fluid through said orifices along chambered flow paths while maintaining lateral fluid communication between the flow paths, repeatedly changing the orientation of said flow paths relative to a series of the orifices along said flow paths such that the progressive dividing and recombining of the fluid through orifices along each chambered flow path is different from that of any other chambered flow path with respect to the pattern of changes in orientation of the flow path relative to the series of orifices therealong.