Patent Application - MINIATURE ACTIVE STANDOFF CHAMBER > Claims

1. A system for containing an aerosol comprising: a chamber for the aerosol having a pair of opposing apertures defining an unobstructed path extending through the chamber;a pair of internal flow generators positioned inside the chamber, each internal flow generator associated with one of the pair of opposing apertures, each internal flow generator configured to generate substantially vertical internal flows across the associated one of the pair of opposing apertures, inside the chamber;a filtering flow generator configured to generate filtering flows across each of the pair of opposing apertures, outside the chamber, substantially parallel to the internal flows;wherein the filtering flows are configured to entrain any of the aerosol that exits the containment chamber through the pair of opposing apertures; andwherein the filtering flows are filtered by one or more filters after flowing past the pair of opposing apertures.
- 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the rate of each filtering flow is configured to equal a rate of the internal flows.
- 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtering flows are directed through ductwork surrounding each of the pair of opposing apertures outside of the chamber.
  - 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the ductwork associated with each of the pair of opposing apertures comprise a fan configured to adjust a rate of each filtering flow associated with each of the pair of opposing apertures.
    - 5. The system of claim 4, further comprising one or more flow sensors configured to measure the rate of internal flow, and adjust a speed of each fan to increase the rate of each filtering flow to approximate a rate of the internal flows.
- 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a manifold configured to combine each filtering flow to flow together through the one or more filters.
- 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the external flows are recirculated across each of the pair of opposing apertures after being filtered by the one or more filters.
- 8. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more additional internal flow generators spaced between the pair of internal flow generators and configured to generate additional substantially vertical internal flows across the unobstructed path.
  - 9. The system of claim 8, wherein each of the substantially vertical internal flows and each of the additional substantially vertical flows are associated with one or more of a plurality of vortices having a horizontal axis of revolution approximately perpendicular to the unobstructed path.
10. A system for testing a standoff detector comprising: a chamber having a first aperture and a second aperture spaced to define an unobstructed path extending through the chamber, the chamber configured to generally contain an aerosol therein;a first internal flow generator associated with an interior side of the first aperture, configured to produce a first vortex of the aerosol in the chamber, the first vortex having a horizontal axis of revolution approximately perpendicular to the unobstructed path and including a first flow extending across at least a portion of the interior side of the first aperture;a second internal flow generator associated with an interior side of the second aperture, configured to produce a second vortex of the aerosol in the chamber, the second vortex having a horizontal axis of revolution perpendicular to the unobstructed path and including a second flow extending across at least a portion of the interior side of the second aperture; andan external flow generator configured to produce external flows, at least a portion of each of which extends across an exterior side of each of the first and second apertures, the external flows configured to capture any of the aerosol that escapes from the chamber through the first or second apertures, and direct said aerosol into one or more filters configured to filter the aerosol from the external flows;wherein the standoff detector is positioned to view the aerosol through the first and second apertures, so as to measure properties of the aerosol.
- 11. The system of claim 10, wherein a flow rate for the first flow and/or the second flow and a flow rate for the external flow associated with each aperture may be adjusted to approximate one another.
  - 12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a pair of flow adjustment fans associated with each of the external flows associated with each of the first and second apertures, configured to adjust the flow rate thereof.