Abstract
An air-turbine and associated air supply tube was optimized as a dental air-turbine handpiece system. The system consists of an air-turbine with an impeller and a housing, and an air supply tube which supplies compressed-air to the air-turbine. The flow characteristics of the dental air-turbine handpiece system were investigated using ANSYS CFX. The study aimed to find the significant design parameters, and optimize them in terms of the maximum torque. The number of blades, the blade angle of the impeller and the gap between the impeller and the housing were chosen as the three major design parameters. The design of experiment technique was used to optimize two dental air-turbine handpiece systems: Type 1 was an air turbine alone and Type 2 was the air-turbine with an air supply tube. The optimization results showed that the gap between the impeller and the housing was not a significant parameter for Type 1. The maximum torque was lower for Type 2 than for Type 1. The optimized optimum blade number was the same for both types, but the blade angle and the gap differed between the two types. The blade angle and blade number were significant for Type 1, and all three design parameters were significant for Type 2. The performance improvement was greater for Type 2 than for Type 1. The performance of both optimized handpiece systems was reviewed in terms of the experimental measurements of noise level, rotational speed, and withdrawal force.
Highlights
The dental air-turbine handpiece system has evolved rapidly over the years as its rotational power is useful for grinding teeth and repairing cavities
As the impeller has 8 blades, the rotational angle of 45° means the duration for the passing of one blade. Both curves show a sinusoidal distribution of torque with the rotational angle, and the maximum torque occurs at the same rotational angle of 8°
Two computational domains for the optimization of an airturbine handpiece system were investigated using Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and DOE: Type 1 is an air turbine alone and Type 2 consists of an air-turbine with a corresponding air supply tube
Summary
The dental air-turbine handpiece system has evolved rapidly over the years as its rotational power is useful for grinding teeth and repairing cavities. It is a vital equipment of dentistry to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases. With the increasing social demand such as cosmetic needs, oral hygiene and management, the importance and necessity of high speed air-turbine handpieces is growing. The head consists of an impeller and housing, and the impeller rotates at a high speed by means of air flow. An air supply tube goes through the neck, body and coupler; it supplies compressed air to the head
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