US Navy Nuclear trained personnel (like me) become familiar with a process known as “theory to practice” early in the training “pipeline.” It essentially means that you “math it out” first, and then you see if it works the way you expect it to. It’s really just a condensed version of the Scientific Method, but when dealing with highly radioactive fissionable material, you really can’t put the “practice” before the “theory” or you get an accident like the 1986 explosion of Chernobyl reactor #4.
Through the course of history, certain previously unknown scientific principles have been used (in “practice”) before the details of the physical phenomena (the “theory”) were fully understood. For instance, early aviation pioneers like Orville & Wilbur Wright experimented with curved airfoil wings to get their heavier-than-air flying machines airborne. A decade or so before, a Romanian inventor named Henri Coandă’s interest was piqued by the phenomenon, inspiring him to “math it out” while developing his own heavier-than-air flying machine, called the Coandă-1910.
In addition to aviation, the Coandă effect presents advantages – and challenges – in other fields:
- When a patient is intubated during anesthesia, particular care must be taken to ensure the tube isn’t off-center in the patient’s airway, or the Coandă effect could cause the breathing air flow to “favor” one lung over the other.
- HVAC designers keep the Coandă effect in mind when they place duct work near ceilings or walls, because the fluid attachment to those surfaces can be used to improve air flow, especially in large spaces.
- Reaction turbine blades have been around for a long time, but a recent design incorporates backward curving blades. The fluid attachment to the convex surface of the blade results in a forward reaction force, improving the efficiency of the combustion gases used to power the turbine.
EXAIR engineered compressed air products, of course, use the Coandă effect for maximum air entrainment. The high velocity flow from the primary (compressed air supply) stream following the Coandă profile of our Full Flow Air Knives, Standard Air Knives, Air Wipes, and Air Amplifiers generates a low pressure above the profile surface. This results in entrainment, or amplification, ratios of up to 30:1.
There’s no hard evidence that Henri’s Coandă-1910 airplane ever actually flew, but it’s a big source of national pride for Romania. So much, in fact, their largest airport is known as Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport. There’s PLENTY of evidence, however, that the Coandă effect – specifically, its implementation into the design of EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products – can help you get the most out of your compressed air system. If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.
Russ Bowman, CCASS
Application Engineer
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