Patent Application
20250084909
The present invention relates in general to pressurized dampers. In particular, the present invention relates to sealing systems and methods for pressurized sand dampers, or pressurized dampers that use either granular materials.
Over the last 40 years, a variety of well-engineered structures which were designed according to building codes that were valid during their construction time, experienced severe damage worldwide during earthquake shaking. Most of this damage was the result of excessive seismic displacements, and many research programs were launched during the last four decades to study the seismic retrofit of civil structures. Improvements have been achieved in both design and analysis with the help of strong-motion records; while extensive retrofit programs have been implemented worldwide using the emerging response modification technologies (FHWA 1995; FEMA273 1997; FEMA356 2000; FEMA547 2006; ASCE/SEI 41-17 2017; Priestley et al. 1996).
The increasing need for structures to meet acceptable performance levels during earthquake and wind excitations has led to the development of various seismic and wind engineering design and retrofit strategies. In addition to seismic isolation (Kelly 1985, 1986; Buckle and Mayes 1990, Makris 2018), supplemental damping or strength/ductility-oriented design such as yielding steel dampers or buckling-restrained braces, are alternative strategies to the traditional seismic capacity design of structures (Kelly et al. 1972; Skinner et al. 1974; Robinson and Greenbank 1976; Soong and Dargush 1997; Constantinou et al. 1998; Black et al. 2002, 2003, 2004; Symans et al. 2008), where energy is dissipated in dedicated, specially designed energy dissipation devices. Supplemental energy dissipation has also been used extensively for the reduction of vibrations of buildings under wind loading (Davenport 1966; Kareem and Gurley 1996; McNamara et al. 1997; Kareem et al. 1999 among others).
One such strategy is the addition of fluid-dampers in an effort to limit excessive displacements. Fluid-dampers that generate fluid flow through orifices or valves were originally developed for the shock isolation of military hardware, and their technology was gradually transferred to civil applications in the 1980s. Currently, fluid-dampers of similar technology have been implemented in civil structures to suppress earthquake- and wind-induced vibrations. Given the appreciable differences in the frequency content, duration of loading, and stroke demands that are encountered in civil applications compared to military applications, there has been a number of experimental and analytical studies that examined the technology transfer and implementation of fluid-dampers in civil applications (Soong and Dargush 1997; Constantinou et al. 1998; Symans et al. 2008 and references reported therein). In buildings, fluid-dampers can be incorporated within the skeleton of the structure (Miyamoto and Scholl 1997), at the isolation level of a seismically isolated building (Asher et al. 1996; Constantinou et al. 1998), or in soft stories in buildings to control drifts (Kelly and Konstantinidis 2011; Youssef et al. 1995). At the same time, during the last 20 years, several bridges have been equipped with large-capacity fluid-dampers such as the 91/5 highway overcrossing (Delis et al. 1996; Makris and Zhang 2004), the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Reno and Pohll 1998), the Rion-Antirion cable-stayed bridge (Papanikolas 2002), and the Richmond-San Rafael bridge (Dameron et al. 2003) among others.
The main challenge with fluid-dampers is whether they will maintain their long-term integrity when placed in civil structures which are subjected to a variety of loads, appreciable dynamic displacements, and long-term deformation patterns. Whereas large displacements and velocities are expected during earthquake loading, a prolonged wind loading would increase substantially the temperature of fluid-dampers. Early theoretical studies on the problem of viscous heating of fluid-dampers have been presented by Makris (1998) and Makris et al. (1998), which have been confirmed experimentally by Black and Makris (2006, 2007). Similar to wind loading, traffic loading on bridges induces vibrations of small amplitude; yet, very long duration that may fatigue the damper and eventually lead to catastrophic failure of the devices (Matier and Ross 2013). Potential failures of modem response modification technologies due to repeated loading are both disruptive and costly and certainly are orthogonal to the current trends for sustainable engineering, which in structural/earthquake engineering is understood as the design and construction of structural systems that meet acceptable performance levels at present and the years to come without compromising the ability of future generations to use them, maintain them and benefit from them.
An alternative strategy for the response modification of buildings is the use of buckling-restrained braces, which are yielding braces that increase the strength of the structure while offering supplemental hysteretic energy dissipation (Watanabe et al. 1988; Wada et al. 1989; Black et al. 2002, 2003, 2004; FEMA 547 2006). Because of their distributed yielding that leads to stable hysteretic behavior, buckling-restrained braces enjoy a worldwide acceptance, and they have been proven to be dependable response modification devices. Their hysteretic behavior originates from the yielding of their inner core; therefore, their displacement capacity is limited to the inelastic elongation of the steel inner core. Moreover, their pre-yielding elasticity stiffens the structure, and this may attract additional forces prior to yielding. Accordingly, buckling-restrained braces are suitable response modification devices for specific applications where the displacement demands are relatively small (few centimeters).
Motivated from the recent failures of fluid-dampers (failure of end-seals leading to detrimental leaking, Matier and Ross 2013) and the occasional displacement limitations of buckling-restrained braces, this disclosure presents the development of an innovative, low-cost, long-stroke, fail-safe energy dissipation device in which the material surrounding the moving piston and enclosed within the damper housing is pressurized sand. The proposed innovative pressurized sand-damper (PSD) encompasses the following unique advantages: (a) it does not suffer from the challenge of viscous heating and failure of its end-seals; while accommodating long strokes, (b) its symmetric force output is nearly velocity-independent given that the friction along the sand-steel interface is temperature independent, (c) it can be implemented in harsh environments with extreme high or low temperatures that may challenge the use of fluid-dampers, (d) its force output can be continuously monitored with standard, inexpensive strain gauges installed along the post-tensioned rods that exert the pressure on the sand; while the nominal pressure can be easily adjusted at will with additional post-tensioning; and (e) it is simple, stable, inexpensive and environmentally-friendly design meets the current trends for sustainable engineering. Part of the motivation for selecting sand as the dissipative material is because the dissipative performance of granular materials exhibits a minute dependence on temperature (Saeki 2005; Shah et al. 2009; Bannerman et al. 2011; Heckel et al. 2012; Sack et al. 2013).
The energy dissipation in the proposed pressurized sand-damper originates essentially from the shearing action of the pressurized sand (where shearing forces dominate over the inertia forces of the sand grains); therefore, the proposed concept is entirely different than the “piston-based particle damper” where the particles have a free-surface and energy dissipation originates primarily from the change in the momentum of the particles during multiple collisions (Masri 1969; Fowler et al. 2000; Bai et al. 2009; Shah et al. 2009; Lu et al. 2018). The proposed pressurized sand-damper exploits its pressure-dependent-strength of the yielding sand and its effect on increasing the dissipated energy during cyclic motion. An attractive advantage of the proposed pressurized sand-damper is that while it is a device that serves the modern philosophy of response modification, it consists only of traditional materials (sand and steel) in association with the use of post-tensioned steel rods with which practitioner civil engineers are most familiar.
One disadvantage of pressurized sand dampers is the possibility of leakage of sand. A system and method for preventing or reducing the leakage of pressurized sand from pressurized sand dampers is desirable. It is also desirable to provide a system and method for tuning a pressurized sand damper to a specified frequency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a leak-resistant granular-material damper includes a damper cylinder including a first piston opening at a first end of the damper cylinder and a second piston opening at a second end of the damper cylinder, the first and second piston openings disposed on a longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper piston including a first piston end and a second piston end, wherein the damper piston is disposed on the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder with the first piston end extending outward through the first piston opening and the second piston end extending through the second piston opening, and wherein the damper piston is configured to move bidirectionally along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper sphere mounted on the damper piston in an interior of the damper cylinder, wherein a diameter of the damper sphere is less than an inner diameter of the damper cylinder; pressurized granular material filling the interior of the damper cylinder, wherein the pressurized granular material dissipates energy as the damper sphere moves with the damper piston along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; and one or more sealing ring assemblies, each sealing ring assembly disposed around the damper piston in the interior of the damper cylinder proximately to either the first piston opening or the second piston opening or both to prevent or reduce leakage of the pressurized granular material from the interior of the damper cylinder. In one aspect, each of the one or more sealing ring assemblies is sized and disposed to tune the leak-resistant pressurized granular material damper to a selected frequency. In another aspect, the granular material is sand or ball bearings. In another aspect, each of the one or more sealing ring assemblies includes a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate the damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers. In another aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a sealing ring assembly includes a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate a damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers. In an aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a sealing ring assembly kit includes one or more sealing ring assemblies, each sealing ring assembly including a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate a damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers; and a plurality of threaded fasteners to secure each sealing ring assembly to an interior surface of a damper cylinder of a pressurized granular-material damper. In an aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of preventing or reducing leaks of pressurized granular material from a pressurized granular-material damper includes providing a pressurized granular-material damper including a damper cylinder including a first piston opening at a first end of the damper cylinder and a second piston opening at a second end of the damper cylinder, the first and second piston openings disposed on a longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper piston including a first piston end and a second piston end, wherein the damper piston is disposed on the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder with the first piston end extending outward through the first piston opening and the second piston end extending through the second piston opening, and wherein the damper piston is configured to move bidirectionally along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper sphere mounted on the damper piston in an interior of the damper cylinder, wherein a diameter of the damper sphere is less than an inner diameter of the damper cylinder; and pressurized granular material filling the interior of the damper cylinder, wherein the pressurized granular material dissipates energy as the damper sphere moves with the damper piston along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; and disposing one or more sealing ring assemblies, each sealing ring assembly disposed around the damper piston in the interior of the damper cylinder proximately to either the first piston opening or the second piston opening or both to prevent or reduce leakage of the pressurized granular material from the interior of the damper cylinder. In an aspect, the method further includes sizing the one or more sealing ring assemblies to tune the pressurized granular-material damper to a selected frequency. In another aspect, the granular material is sand or ball bearings. In another aspect, each of the one or more sealing ring assemblies includes a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate the damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers. In another aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
For a more complete understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention, reference is now made to the detailed description of the invention along with the accompanying figures, in which:
While the making and using of various aspects of the present disclosure are discussed in detail below, it should be appreciated that the present disclosure provides many applicable inventive concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specific aspects discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the disclosure and do not delimit the scope of the disclosure.
To facilitate the understanding of this disclosure, a number of terms are defined below. Terms defined herein have meanings as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the areas relevant to the present disclosure. Terms such as “a”, “an” and “the” are not intended to refer to only a singular entity, but include the general class of which a specific example may be used for illustration. The terminology herein is used to describe specific aspects of the disclosure, but their usage does not delimit the disclosure, except as outlined in the claims.
Illustrative embodiments of the system of the present application are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
In the specification, reference may be made to the spatial relationships between various components and to the spatial orientation of various aspects of components as the devices are depicted in the attached drawings. However, as will be recognized by those skilled in the art after a complete reading of the present application, the devices, members, apparatuses, etc. described herein may be positioned in any desired orientation. Thus, the use of terms such as “above,” “below,” “upper,” “lower,” or other like terms to describe a spatial relationship between various components or to describe the spatial orientation of aspects of such components should be understood to describe a relative relationship between the components or a spatial orientation of aspects of such components, respectively, as the device described herein may be oriented in any desired direction.
The present invention is based on the recognition that for the granular-material dampeners to be tunable, and robust, the flange(s) that retain the granular material (e.g., different size grains of sand, ball bearings, etc.), must not allow the material within the damper to leak. Further, the design must be able to withstand tens of thousands of cycles without failure. The ability to retain the dampening material is essential to the function of the damper because for the damper to be tunable, the pressure within the damper chamber must be maintained. Moreover, the plate mechanism must be of sufficient rigidity to not only withstand the thousands of cycles but also be able to compress the damper material without fatigue or breakage.
The present invention includes a sealing ring assembly and is designed for a pressurized granular-material damper including a damper cylinder comprising a first piston opening at a first end of the damper cylinder and a second piston opening at a second end of the damper cylinder, the first and second piston openings disposed on a longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper piston comprising a first piston end and a second piston end, wherein the damper piston is disposed on the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder with the first piston end extending outward through the first piston opening and the second piston end extending through the second piston opening, and wherein the damper piston is configured to move bidirectionally along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper sphere mounted on the piston in an interior of the damper cylinder, wherein the diameter of the damper sphere is less than the inner diameter of the damper cylinder; and pressurized granular material filling the interior of the damper cylinder, wherein the pressurized granular material dissipates energy as the damper sphere moves with the damper piston along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder.
Some embodiments of the cylindrical cap are configured to be secured to an inner wall of the damper cylinder with threaded fasteners proximately to the first piston opening, the second piston opening, or both. The one or more sealing rings includes PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) or some other suitable sealing material. The one or more high-speed rod wipers comprises PTFE or some other suitable sealing material.
An embodiment of the present invention includes a sealing ring assembly kit including one or more sealing ring assemblies as described herein and a plurality of threaded fasteners to secure each sealing ring assembly to an interior surface of a damper cylinder of a pressurized granular-material damper.
An embodiment of the present invention includes a method of tuning the leak-resistant pressurized sand damper to a selected frequency. The method includes selecting a length, a diameter, or both of one or more sealing ring assemblies and disposing it within the pressurized sand damper as described herein.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a leak-resistant granular-material damper comprises, consists essentially of, or consists of a damper cylinder including a first piston opening at a first end of the damper cylinder and a second piston opening at a second end of the damper cylinder, the first and second piston openings disposed on a longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper piston including a first piston end and a second piston end, wherein the damper piston is disposed on the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder with the first piston end extending outward through the first piston opening and the second piston end extending through the second piston opening, and wherein the damper piston is configured to move bidirectionally along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper sphere mounted on the damper piston in an interior of the damper cylinder, wherein a diameter of the damper sphere is less than an inner diameter of the damper cylinder; pressurized granular material filling the interior of the damper cylinder, wherein the pressurized granular material dissipates energy as the damper sphere moves with the damper piston along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; and one or more sealing ring assemblies, each sealing ring assembly disposed around the damper piston in the interior of the damper cylinder proximately to either the first piston opening or the second piston opening or both to prevent or reduce leakage of the pressurized granular material from the interior of the damper cylinder. In one aspect, each of the one or more sealing ring assemblies is sized and disposed to tune the leak-resistant pressurized granular material damper to a selected frequency. In another aspect, the granular material is sand or ball bearings. In another aspect, each of the one or more sealing ring assemblies includes a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate the damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers. In another aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a sealing ring assembly comprises, consists essentially of, or consists of a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate a damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers. In an aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a sealing ring assembly kit comprises, consists essentially of, or consists of one or more sealing ring assemblies, each sealing ring assembly including a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate the damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers; and a plurality of threaded fasteners to secure each sealing ring assembly to an interior surface of a damper cylinder of a pressurized granular-material damper. In an aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of preventing or reducing leaks of pressurized granular material from a pressurized granular-material damper comprises, consists essentially of, or consists of providing a pressurized granular-material damper including a damper cylinder including a first piston opening at a first end of the damper cylinder and a second piston opening at a second end of the damper cylinder, the first and second piston openings disposed on a longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper piston including a first piston end and a second piston end, wherein the damper piston is disposed on the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder with the first piston end extending outward through the first piston opening and the second piston end extending through the second piston opening, and wherein the damper piston is configured to move bidirectionally along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; a damper sphere mounted on the damper piston in an interior of the damper cylinder, wherein a diameter of the damper sphere is less than an inner diameter of the damper cylinder; and pressurized granular material filling the interior of the damper cylinder, wherein the pressurized granular material dissipates energy as the damper sphere moves with the damper piston along the longitudinal axis of the damper cylinder; and disposing one or more sealing ring assemblies, each sealing ring assembly disposed around the damper piston in the interior of the damper cylinder proximately to either the first piston opening or the second piston opening or both to prevent or reduce leakage of the pressurized granular material from the interior of the damper cylinder. In an aspect, the method further includes sizing the one or more sealing ring assemblies to tune the pressurized granular-material damper to a selected frequency. In another aspect, the granular material is sand or ball bearings. In another aspect, each of the one or more sealing ring assemblies includes a cylindrical cap, wherein the cylindrical cap includes a circular axial hole centered on the axis of the cylindrical cap, the circular axial hole having a piston portion having a first diameter to accommodate the damper piston, a sealing ring portion having a second diameter to accommodate one or more sealing rings, and a wiper portion having a third diameter to accommodate one or more high-speed rod wipers; the one or more sealing rings; and the one or more high-speed rod wipers. In another aspect, the cylindrical cap includes steel. In another aspect, the one or more sealing rings include PTFE. In another aspect, the one or more high-speed rod wipers include PTFE.
It will be understood that particular embodiments described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principal features of this invention can be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerous equivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Such equivalents are considered to be within the scope of this invention and are covered by the claims.
All publications and patent applications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains. All publications and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.
The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term “comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” but it is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,” and “one or more than one.” The use of the term “or” in the claims is used to mean “and/or” unless explicitly indicated to refer to alternatives only or the alternatives are mutually exclusive, although the disclosure supports a definition that refers to only alternatives and “and/or.” Throughout this application, the term “about” is used to indicate that a value includes the inherent variation of error for the device, the method being employed to determine the value, or the variation that exists among the study subjects.
As used in this specification and claim(s), the words “comprising” (and any form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having” (and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and any form of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing” (and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps. In embodiments of any of the compositions and methods provided herein, “comprising” may be replaced with “consisting essentially of” or “consisting of” As used herein, the phrase “consisting essentially of” requires the specified integer(s) or steps as well as those that do not materially affect the character or function of the claimed invention. As used herein, the term “consisting” is used to indicate the presence of the recited integer (e.g., a feature, an element, a characteristic, a property, a method/process step, or a limitation) or group of integers (e.g., feature(s), element(s), characteristic(s), property(ies), method/process(s) steps, or limitation(s)) only.
The term “or combinations thereof” as used herein refers to all permutations and combinations of the listed items preceding the term. For example, “A, B, C, or combinations thereof” is intended to include at least one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important in a particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB. Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations that contain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AB, BBC, AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. The skilled artisan will understand that typically there is no limit on the number of items or terms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.
As used herein, words of approximation such as, without limitation, “about,” “substantial” or “substantially” refers to a condition that when so modified is understood to not necessarily be absolute or perfect but would be considered close enough to those of ordinary skill in the art to warrant designating the condition as being present. The extent to which the description may vary will depend on how great a change can be instituted and still have one of ordinary skill in the art recognize the modified feature as still having the required characteristics and capabilities of the unmodified feature. In general, but subject to the preceding discussion, a numerical value herein that is modified by a word of approximation such as “about” may vary from the stated value by at least ±1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12 or 15%.
All of the devices and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the devices and/or methods of this invention have been described in terms of particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the method described herein without departing from the concept, spirit and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope, and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the disclosure. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
Modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the systems and apparatuses described herein without departing from the scope of the invention. The components of the systems and apparatuses may be integrated or separated. Moreover, the operations of the systems and apparatuses may be performed by more, fewer, or other components. The methods may include more, fewer, or other steps. Additionally, steps may be performed in any suitable order.
To aid the Patent Office, and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants wish to note that they do not intend any of the appended claims to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) as it exists on the date of filing hereof unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/581,371, filed Sep. 8, 2023, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
This invention was made with government support under CMMI-2036131 awarded by the National Science Foundation. The government has certain rights in the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63581371 | Sep 2023 | US |
