OPTIMIZATION OF THE MILKING MACHINE CLAW SHAPE WITH THE USE OF THE FLOW SIMULATION SOFTWARE 1

Article history: Received: September 2013 Received in the revised form: December 2013 Accepted: January 2014 The objective of the research was to optimize the shape of the milk chamber of a claw using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. The results of the liquid flows simulation in claw models of various shapes, in particular with different aspect ratios defined as height to diameter ratios were presented. The velocity of fluid and interactions between different streams of liquid flowing out of inlets were analysed. The research was carried out at the flow of liquid from 0 to 10 kg·s -1 , vacuum of 38 to 50 kPa, simulating air injection into the claw model. It was found that the best conditions are for models with an aspect ratio of approximately 3. Computed liquid flow rates ranged from 0.05 to 1.2 m·s -1 .