Abstract
Acoustic manipulation by an ultrasonic phased array provides an entirely new approach to processes such as coalescence, mixing, separation, and evaporation occurring in the generation of new materials, physical property measurement, the biomedical industry, etc. However, to date, ultrasonic phased arrays have not been fully investigated for applications in fluid manipulation. This paper provides contactless coalescence and mixing techniques for droplets in air by controlling the acoustic potential by using an ultrasonic phased array. We focused on mode oscillation to propose an efficient mixing technique for liquid without contact. A comparison of mixing performance between cases with mode oscillation and without mode oscillation showed that the flow induced by mode oscillation promotes droplet mixing. Our paper demonstrates the feasibility of contactless coalescence and mixing as a first step in fluid manipulation with a phased array.
Highlights
An ultrasonic phased array enables high precision and free generation of sound fields, most studies use solid particles, which are easy to handle, and an ultrasonic phased array is not applied for droplet manipulation
For the case without an oscillation mode, it is considered that the inertia of coalescence and acoustic streaming inside the droplets promoted mixing
It is considered that the formation of vortices via stretching and folding induced by oscillation promotes mixing. These results offer the potential of creating a platform for contactless fluid manipulation technologies and fundamental fluid science, including applied approaches to engineering and database creation with respect to droplet dynamics
Summary
An ultrasonic phased array enables high precision and free generation of sound fields, most studies use solid particles, which are easy to handle, and an ultrasonic phased array is not applied for droplet manipulation. Our objective was to provide an entirely new approach for contactless fluid manipulation in air to support processes such as coalescence, mixing, separation, and evaporation. We present a fundamental technology for levitation, coalescence and active mixing of droplets by using an ultrasonic phased array
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