I have been doing some research on valve systems for sample analyzers. In many of the valve systems' product documentation they refer to a flow path as 'fully swept'. From the context I can conclude that it increases the rate of purging a previous gas or liquid from the system. My best guess is that it's a path that minimizes 'dead zones' in the flow, where gas or liquid may get caught. Is it simply marketing jargon, or is there a fluid mechanics definition?
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The questions should be self-containing, i.e. without clicking should the afterlife understand, what are you asking about. – peterh Jun 04 '18 at 20:22
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You are correct; as described in product literature, a "fully swept" path "minimize[s] entrapment areas, facilitate[s] purging and maximize[s] flow capacity" (SwageLok) and ensures "low shear" with "no hold-up volume" (Saint Gobain) and "with no hidden recesses or dead spaces" (SolidSense).
Whether this capability is valuable to you depends on your application. It's certainly industry-specific jargon. Since it's rigorously defined (there either are dead spaces or there aren't) and can be easily verified, on the spectrum of marketing fluff to an objective industry term, it's firmly on the latter side.
My own research, for example, involved sending live biological cells in solution through PEEK tubing and a variety of valves. Increasing the degree of sweeping in the fluid path meant the difference between a quick post-experiment clean with 10% bleach followed by deionized water vs. the possibility of bacterial contamination flourishing in cracks filled with dead cells and the possibility of residual bleach leaking out of crevices and killing my live cells.
Chemomechanics
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Thanks for providing examples in other applications. So a swept path appears to be something like the design objective of an apparatus and purge rate would be the quantitative measure of the result of that design. – user16318 Jun 04 '18 at 16:58