The current work presents a 1D analytic model for a PV aeromechanical system and compares it with a 3D CFD model. The 1D model is based on the analogy between airflow and electric current. A PV aeromechanical system enables accurate positioning of thin, flexible substrates by creating an air cushion between the substrate and an accurate, rigid surface, having bi-directional aeromechanical spring-like behavior. Nozzle can be described as the relation they allow between flow (Q) and pressure drop (∆p): R ∝ ∆p/Qn where n depends on the characteristic behavior and (in this work) is between 1 and 2. The 1D model is computationally much cheaper than the 3D CFD model. Although the 1D model requires one CFD 3D model analysis for quantifying the exact resistance in the air cushion, it allows very fast calculations of performance when varying the other parameters of air gap, pressure/vacuum supply, and flowrate. The difference between 1D analytic model and full CFD analysis, in terms of air gap stiffness results was approximately 3%.
This paper presents results from a CFD analysis that highlights the effect of nozzles' characteristics on the performance of PV aeromechanical systems. PV aeromechanical systems enable accurate positioning of thin flexible substrate by creating an air cushion between the substrate and an accurate rigid surface, having bi-directional aeromechanical spring-like behavior. Nozzles can be described as the relation they allow between flow (Q) and pressure drop across them (∆p): ∆p ∝ Qn where n depends on the characteristic behavior and (in this work) is between 1 and 2. The characteristic behavior depends on the mechanism by which pressure is reduced. The mechanism can be dominated by inertial effects, by viscous effects, or by a combination of both inertial and viscous effects. It was found that aeromechanical performance is very sensitive to the nozzles' characteristic. An air cushion with high aeromechanical stiffness and constant flow rate is achieved by combining vacuum nozzles of exponent n=1 and pressure nozzles of exponent n=2.
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