Air conditioning system

A housing for air-conditioning apparatus includes an inlet and an outlet. A controlled level of water in the bottom of the housing serves as a reservoir for a rotating disc which flings a curtain of water across the interior of the chamber in the flow path of the air passing from the inlet to the outlet. Three foraminous walls filter and mix the air with one wall upstream of the rotating disc and two downstream.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention is involved with cooling, filtering and washing air or 
possibly other gases, primarily in an industrial environment. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Using water to spray across the flow path of a gas, particularly air, as it 
traverses a housing or chamber for the purpose of filtering, washing and 
cooling the gas takes many forms. In some cases nozzles are mounted around 
the periphery of the chamber to spray water toward its center. In other 
cases, a foraminous wall receives water sprayed or trickled from above 
such that it flows downward by gravity as the gas passes therethrough. 
Additionally, numerous patents disclose a rotating drum, cylinder or disc 
mounted either parallel or perpendicular to the flow of gas. The rotating 
drum, etc. flings water in a pattern across the flow path of gas passing 
through the chamber and the water tends to clean and cool the air. 
There are three basic types of rotary spraying apparatus known in the art, 
namely smooth cylinders, smooth discs, and patterned or toothed discs; the 
latter comprise discs bearing projections extending out of the plane of 
the discs. 
Smooth cylinders are bulky and so heavy that they are difficult to balance 
on a shaft revolving at high speed. In addition, since the water or other 
liquid being sprayed only adheres to the surface of the cylinder by 
surface tension, the quantity of water sprayed by a smooth cylinder is 
small relative to the large power needed to rotate a heavy cylinder at 
high speed. 
Smooth discs are lighter and easier to balance than smooth cylinders but 
spray only a small amount of water. Accordingly, a very large number of 
discs may be necessary where large quantities of water have to be sprayed. 
Toothed discs spray far more water than smooth discs because the 
projections act as scoops lifting water out of the bath. Unfortunately, 
the spray produced by known apparatus using toothed discs lacks 
uniformity, both as regards to the sizes of individual droplets within the 
spray and the angular dispersion of the spray. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention includes a housing or chamber with an inlet to receive air 
or other gas and a discharge outlet which may or may not be connected to a 
duct system for distributing discharged gas to various locations. 
Where the word "air" is used subsequently it is understood that while the 
preferred embodiment involves cleaning, filtering and cooling air, the 
apparatus could be used with other gases. 
Between the inlet and outlet are three foraminous walls, a fan motor to 
pull air through the foraminous walls, a motor for rotating a disc mounted 
on a shaft extending therefrom and a pool of water located in the bottom 
of the chamber into which the disc dips to collect and fling water in the 
form of droplets to form a curtain across the flow path of the air between 
the inlet and the outlet. 
One foraminous wall is located near the inlet of the chamber to minimize 
the dirt which might be drawn into the system. In an industrial 
application the apparatus may be installed on a roof or on the ground 
adjacent a parking lot. The need to minimize the incursion of dirt into 
the system is obvious from the variety of installation sites which may be 
anticipated. 
The rotating disc which forms the curtain of air droplets is located 
downstream of the first filter. The next filter in the flow path is called 
a "wet" filter because it is in relatively close proximity to the rotating 
disc and it will inherently have some water droplets impinge thereon. The 
wet filter is designed to prevent large droplets of water from being 
entrained in the air flow and drawn into the treated air distribution 
system as droplets. 
The third foraminous wall or filter is called a "dry" filter and it serves 
to inter-mix the cooled air to a greater degree and promote the 
homogeneity of the air before it passes to the distribution system and 
promotes uniformity as to humidity and temperature as it passes on to the 
blower motor which is located downstream of the dry filter. 
The rotating disc is relatively small in diameter. It includes six vanes on 
its downstream side which extend linearly in a radial direction to near 
the periphery of the disc where the vanes bend backward away from the 
direction of rotation. This backward bending at the periphery allows the 
water which is being propelled radially by the rotating disc to flow 
around the bend and down the slope of the vane until it gets to the 
periphery of the disc and the edge of the sloped vane at the same time. 
Upon arriving at the termination point, the water which will have slowed 
in its velocity as well as its acceleration during the time it flows on 
the sloped part of the vane will be accelerated again at that point which 
tends to atomize the water into smaller droplets than would otherwise be 
the case if the vane was linear to the very edge of the disc. 
Objects of the invention will be clear from a review of the drawings 
described below and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment 
which follows.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The invention involves the cooling, washing and filtering of air and the 
apparatus to accomplish this is housed in a chamber 10 having a pair of 
inlets 12 and an outlet 14. In the illustrated embodiment the outlet has a 
duct system 16 attached thereto which may direct the treated air to 
desired locations in an industrial plant or factory but the ducting system 
itself is not always necessary. The outlet 14 could lead directly into the 
plant area itself without any duct system being attached at all. 
For ease of description hereinafter, only one side of the apparatus of FIG. 
1 will be described. As shown, each of the two inlets 12 provides 
identical apparatus in a flow path which leads to the single outlet 14. 
Therefore only one flow path requires description for a full understanding 
of the invention. The preferred embodiment is as illustrated comprising 
two inlets leading to a single outlet but a single inlet is within the 
scope of the inventive concept. 
An air blower system 18 is illustrated as a squirrel cage which is 
conventional but the particular kind of blower system is not critical. The 
blower system 18 is located in a plenum chamber 19 which serves to collect 
cooled humidified air from both halves of the inlet system. However, it is 
desired that the blower system be located immediately upstream of the 
outlet 14 in the flow path within the chamber 10. It has been found that 
pulling the air through the foraminous walls or filters (to be described 
later) is far more efficient than where the blower directs air against the 
foraminous wall in an effort to push it through the filter. 
A first filter 20 is mounted in the area of the inlet 12 for purposes of 
preventing large particles of dirt and debris from entering the chamber 
10. Air drawn from the interior of a factory building or immediately 
surrounding the same tends to have a larger percentage of dust and dirt 
particles than is desirable. Therefore the first filter 20 should be 
changed periodically as it will tend to become clogged over use in a few 
days or weeks. 
Immediately inside the filter 20 is a water reservoir 22 which, in the 
preferred embodiment is filled to a depth of about two and one-half 
inches. Its level 23 is controlled by a float 24 which is a conventional 
device for controlling the feed of water to a reservoir. The float 24 
maintains the water at approximately a constant two and one-half inch 
level. About two-thirds of the way from one side of the chamber in the 
bottom of the water reservoir is a frame 26 which is generally rectangular 
in shape and it is designed to receive and releasably hold the tapered, 
downwardly converging, outer surface of a motor housing 28. The housing 28 
is releasably held within the frame 26 by dimples 30 which have been 
deformed inwardly from the upwardly extending flanges 32 of the frame. 
The frame itself may be constructed from pieces of angle iron welded 
together prior to the time it is welded to the bottom of the water 
reservoir. When the motor housing 28 is pushed downward into the rectangle 
bounded by the frame, the dimples 30 will engage the housing surface and 
the flanges 32 will flex ever so slightly. Thus, the point contact 
supplied by the dimple will place flange 32 in tension with the dimple 30 
pushing against the surface of the motor housing which will hold it in 
position when the apparatus is in operation. 
A shaft 34 projects from the housing 28 and mounted on the shaft is a two 
and three-eighths inch diameter disc 36. It will be observed in FIG. 2 
that the axis of the shaft is about one-half inch below the surface of the 
water. 
On the surface of the disc 36, facing away from the motor housing 28 are 
six radially extending vanes 38 which project radially from a central hub 
40 toward the periphery of the disc. About one-eighth of an inch from the 
periphery of the disc, the vanes bend backward away from the direction of 
rotation of the disc to form a sloped section 42 which extends to the 
periphery of the disc. The purpose of the sloped section 42 is to increase 
the uniformity of droplets flung from the periphery of the disc. What 
happens to the water as it flows radially along the surface of the vane 38 
is that it is increasing in acceleration and velocity; but when it reaches 
the break point between the linear section of the vane and the sloped 
section 42 it has a momentary decrease in acceleration and velocity; and 
then when it reaches the very periphery of the disc it is again 
accelerated which tends to serve as an atomizer and provide a uniform 
spray of droplets from the disc periphery. 
The disc 36 is designed to rotate in a substantially vertical plane and 
substantially perpendicular to the direction of air flow at that point in 
the chamber. Also, apertures 43 extend through the disc and collect water 
while submerged for discharge along vanes 38 during the droplet formation 
phase of the cycle. 
Mounted on the motor housing 28 is a shield 44 held in place by a pair of 
screws 46. The shield is mounted such that it is between the housing and 
the disc and thereby upstream of the disc. As water is flung from the 
periphery of the disc, some droplets which are relatively large in size 
will move in a direction generally upstream toward the first filter 20. 
This will not be beneficial to the overall system because the resulting 
wetness would both increase the caking and collection of dirt on filter 20 
and it would increase the resistance to air flow through the system 
(requiring a more powerful blower system 18). The shield 44 is located 
such that the large majority of such droplets will impinge thereon and be 
directed upwardly and toward the wet filter 48. Additionally, the shield 
breaks the large droplets into smaller ones when they rebound which helps 
in making a uniform dispersion of droplets across the chamber. 
It will be observed that the shield extends only on one side of the motor 
and it is the side which corresponds to the part of the disc first 
breaking the surface 23 and which would have random droplets flung in more 
diverse directions than directly radially of the periphery of the disc. It 
will also be observed that the side of the disc which first emerges from 
the water has the most space radially for flinging said water. That is, 
the axis of the shaft 38 is about two thirds the distance from side 50 of 
the chamber 10 and the side of the disc 36 which first emerges from the 
water in its rotation is nearest to side 50 of the chamber. It has been 
found that with this location and the proportions of droplets flung from 
the periphery of the disc, the location indicated provides the best degree 
of uniformity of the water curtain across the flow path. 
As stated previously, immediately downstream of the disc 36 is a second 
foraminous wall or filter 48 which is called the wet foraminous wall for 
the reason that water droplets which are not evaporated by the passing 
stream of air are often drawn into contact with the wall 48 and then tend 
to trickle down and return to the water in the reservoir 22. This 
trickling down motion also has the benefit of increasing the uniformity of 
humidity and temperature in the cooling of the air. 
A third foraminous wall known as the dry foraminous wall 52 is next in the 
flow path of the air and it is so called because most of the water 
droplets are filtered out by the wet wall 48. The dry wall serves the 
purpose of intermixing the air and making it more uniform as to 
temperature and humidity before it goes to the squirrel cage blower 18 and 
is discharged into the plant area. 
Having thus described the invention in its preferred embodiment it will be 
clear that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of 
the invention. However, it is not intended that the drawings shown or the 
words used to describe the same be in any way limiting on the invention. 
Rather it is intended that the invention be limited only by the scope of 
the appended claims.