Design of Water Filling and Cleaning System for an Air Washer

Yee, Choon Sian (2022) Design of Water Filling and Cleaning System for an Air Washer. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Human health and comfort are strongly linked to indoor environment characteristics such as air quality and humidity level. Due to the poor air quality, it will affect occupant’s health which lead to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) symptoms. Air washer is a 2 in 1 appliance that is frequently used in order to improve the indoor air quality. The function of air washer is to improve the humidity level and clean the air by using water where particles in the air can be trapped by the water. For Venta LW45 model of air washer, the water level in the tank needs to be refill frequently and cleaning is done once aweek. The currentway of filling is achieved by the user manually filling the washer and the current and only way of cleaning is to carry the entire washer to the washroom which is a very tedious process for user to accomplish. Therefore, this project aims to propose a system that is able to perform the function of refilling and cleaning to Venta LW45 air washer. Various type of replenishing methods and contaminant removal technologies are studied in depth to develop design with appropriate input specification. Three conceptual designs were prepared by using Solidworks. The conceptual design of Inverted Tank Filling and Vacuum System which was inspired based on the structure of inverted jar filling and wet vacuum cleaner mechanisms was selected because the filling method is simple to achieve without the needs of pump and the cleaning efficiency is highest among three designs. The design allows user to perform filling and cleaning function by interchanging the casing. As for cleaning process, it allows to performnormal or full cleaning with the helps of disposable mesh. Some design computations were carried out including the spring size, specification of vacuum motor, orifice diameter, material thickness and hence a detailed 3D model of engineering design was generated. The 3D model was subjected to fluid flow and static structural analysis via ANSYS Workbench. For the fluid flow results, the air velocity and differential pressure of system during vacuum suction process were obtained to ensure the system has well performance. For static structural analysis, it was performed for both inverted tank when during the suction process and when tank is fully-filled by the water to analyse the Von Mises Stress, Maximum Principal Strain and Safety Factor. Improvement and optimization were made for both the analysis results to achieve the most optimal design condition in terms of strength and usage of material. Upon the completion of the project, customers no longer have to manually fill the water in the air washer and carry the entire washer to the washroom for cleaning. Thus it makes the task of filling and cleaning required less effort and not time consumed.