Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of a Noncontact Handling Device Using Air-Swirling Flow
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 137, Issue 6
Abstract
The vortex gripper is a recently developed pneumatic noncontact handling device that takes advantage of air-swirling flow to cause upward lifting force and that thereby can pick up and hold a work piece placed underneath without any contact. It is applicable where, e.g., in the semiconductor wafer manufacturing process, contact should be avoided during handling and moving in order to minimize damage to a work piece. For the purpose of a full understanding of the mechanism of the vortex gripper, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study was conducted in this paper, and at the same time, experimental work was carried out to measure the pressure distribution on the upper surface of the work piece. First, three turbulence models were used for simulation and verified by comparison with the experimental pressure distribution. It is known that the Reynolds stress transport model (RSTM) can reproduce the real distribution better. Then, on the basis of the experimental and numerical result of RSTM, an insight into the vortex gripper and its flow phenomena, including flow structure, spatial velocity, and pressure distributions, and an investigation into the influence of clearance variation was given.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 137 • Issue 6 • June 2011
Pages: 400 - 409
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 26, 2010
Accepted: Nov 15, 2010
Published online: Nov 17, 2010
Published in print: Jun 1, 2011
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