Research on duct flow field optimisation of a robot vacuum cleaner

Abstract

The duct of a robot vacuum cleaner is the length of the flow channel between the inlet of the rolling brush blower and the outlet of the vacuum blower. To cope with the pressure drop problem of the duct flow field in a robot vacuum cleaner, a method based on Pressure Implicit with Splitting of Operators (PRISO) algorithm is introduced and the optimisation design of the duct flow field is implemented. Firstly, the duct structure in a robot vacuum cleaner is taken as a research object, with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) theories adopted; a three-dimensional fluid model of the duct is established by means of the FLUENT solver of the CFD software. Secondly with the k-ε turbulence model of threedimensional incompressible fluid considered and the PRISO pressure modification algorithm employed, the flow field numerical simulations inside the duct of the robot vacuum cleaner are carried out. Then, the velocity vector plots on the arbitrary plane of the duct flow field are obtained. Finally, an investigation of the dynamic characteristics of the duct flow field is done and defects of the original duct flow field are analysed, the optimisation of the original flow field has then been conducted. Experimental results show that the duct flow field after optimisation can effectively reduce pressure drop, the feasibility as well as the correctness of the theoretical modelling and optimisation approaches are validated. © 2011 Lai et al.