PFI-TT: High Performance, Highly Efficient Valves for Controlling Gas Flows

这个创新-技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是将一种新的高性能燃气阀技术推向市场。气体这个术语是指既没有形状也没有体积的液体，比如空气。它不仅限于天然气，还包括天然气。气阀又称气动阀，广泛应用于各种工业和医疗产品中。对该项目特别感兴趣的两个应用是半导体制造的气体流量控制器和医疗呼吸机。新的阀门提供了极快的响应和精确的流量控制，这对两种应用都是有利的。例如，改善半导体制造设备中的阀门性能将有助于增加微制造工艺中的电路密度，从而促进微电子系统的持续发展。这些阀门也非常节能，这使得它们在便携式医疗设备中的使用特别有吸引力，例如应急车辆中使用的通风机。将探索新的微制造技术，以生产可能在其他产品中应用的低泄漏阀门。随着技术的成熟，这里开发的阀门有可能使气体阀门行业受益。新兴的应用包括软机器人和聚变反应堆控制系统。拟议的项目利用了一项新的阀门技术的发现。这些阀门通过改变气体流经的通道的大小来发挥作用。通过将平板朝向孔口移动来减小通道尺寸，反之亦然。一种被称为“压电堆”的高效电动致动器被用来移动平板。然而，压电堆只能产生非常小的运动，通常是几十微米。因此，过去使用压电堆的阀门具有较低的流量。这些阀门用一系列微孔取代了单个孔板，从而克服了流量限制。这项研究的目的是将新阀门技术从实验室示范推进到市场产品，并制定新阀门的商业化计划。这项研究将产生一种阀门原型，可以向天然气阀门制造商展示新技术的优势。计算流体力学将被用来研究通过阀门的流动，以开发改进的设计方法。将探索新的微制造方法，以减少泄漏。技术目标是最大限度地增加流过阀门的流量，最大限度地减少全关闭状态下的泄漏，最大限度地降低制造成本。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to bring a new high performance gas valve technology to market. The term gases refers to fluids that have neither shape nor volume, such as air. It is not limited to, but includes, natural gas. Gas valves, also known as pneumatic valves, are used in a huge variety of industrial and medical products. Two applications of particular interest to this project are gas flow controllers for semiconductor fabrication and medical ventilators. The new valves offer extremely fast response and precise flow control, which is beneficial to both applications. For example, improving valve performance in semiconductor fabrication equipment will help increase circuit density in microfabrication processes, thereby facilitating the continuing evolution of microelectronic systems. The valves are also extremely energy efficient, which makes them particularly attractive for use in portable medical devices, such as ventilators used in emergency response vehicles. New microfabrication techniques will be explored for producing low leakage valves that may have application in additional products. The valves developed here have the potential to benefit the gas valve industry as the technology matures. Emerging applications include soft robotics and fusion reactor control systems.The proposed project capitalizes on a discovery of a novel valve technology. The valves function by varying the size of a channel through which the gas flows. Channel size is decreased by moving a plate toward an orifice and vice versa. A highly efficient electric actuator, called a "piezostack", is used to move the plate. However, piezostacks can produce only very small motions, typically tens of micrometers. As a result, past valves using piezostacks have low flow capacity. The valves overcome the flow capacity limitation by replacing a single orifice with an array of micro-orifices. The objective of the research is to advance the new valve technology from a laboratory demonstration to a marketable product and to formulate a commercialization plan for the new valves. The research will yield a valve prototype that can demonstrate the advantages of the new technology to manufacturers of gas valves. Computational fluid mechanics will be used to study flow through the valve to develop improved methods for designing them. New micro-manufacturing methods will be explored to reduce leakage. The technical goals are to maximize flow through the valve, minimize leakage in the fully closed position, and minimize manufacturing cost.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.