Pattern-formation under acoustic driving forces

Abstract

Chemical and metallurgical processes enhanced by high intensity acoustic waves, thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators, fuel rods in nuclear reactors, heat exchanger tubes, offshore and vibrating structures, solar thermal collectors, acoustic levitators, microfluidic devices, cycling, musical acoustics, blood flow through veins/arteries, hearing in the mammalian ear, carbon nanotube loudspeakers, etc. The evolution of a myriad of processes involving the oscillation of viscous fluids in the presence of solid boundaries is up to a certain extent influenced by acoustic streaming. In addition to the sound field, viscous energy dissipation at the fluid–solid boundary causes a time-independent fluid circulation, which can lead to a significant enhancement of heat, mass and momentum transfer at large oscillation amplitudes. A particularly relevant phenomenon that can be notably affected by acoustic streaming is the promotion of sound waves by temperature gradients or viceversa (thermoacoustics), which is at the basis of potentially efficient and environmental friendly engines and refrigerators that have attracted a renewed interest in the last years. In the present manuscript, historical developments and the underlying basic physics behind acoustic streaming and thermoacoustics are reviewed from an unifying perspective.