Frequency Acoustic Waves Research Articles

Agglomeration and capture of fine particles in the coupling effect of pulsed corona discharge and acoustic wave enhanced by spray droplets

Fine particles from industrial processes are considered to be potentially harmful to humans and environment, and massive amounts of fine particles are continuously emitted into the air due to the low removal efficiency of current conventional dust capture devices. A novel pretreatment process using the coupling effect of pulsed corona discharge and acoustic waves enhanced by spray droplets for fine particle agglomeration and capture was investigated in this study. The application of pulsed corona discharge in an acoustic field led to an increase in the efficiency of fine particle agglomeration to 74.7%, and the improvement was much more obvious for low frequency acoustic waves. The spray flow rate delivered by the spray nozzles with a size of 0.30mm or 0.40mm was incrementally increased. Furthermore, the penetration efficiency initially decreased, then increased, and finally decreased when droplets were sprayed in either a pulsed corona discharge field or an acoustic wave field. The penetration efficiency of fine particles substantially decreased to 10% with the enhancement of spray droplets coupled with both a pulsed corona discharge and an acoustic wave, both at their most efficient settings. The penetration efficiency further decreased with the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfonic salt surfactant to the spray droplets, in particular, at a concentration of 0.3%.

Acoustic streaming in two-dimensional freely suspended smectic liquid crystal films

We study horizontal streaming excited by means of a low-frequency and low-intensity acoustic wave in 2D freely suspended films of thermotropic smectic liquid crystals. Acoustic pressure induces fast periodic transverse oscillations of the film, which produce in-plane stationary couples of vortices slowly rotating in opposite directions owing to hydrodynamic nonlinearity. The parameters of the vortices are measured using a new method, based on tracking solidlike disk-shaped islands. The horizontal motion occurs only when the amplitude of the acoustic pressure exceeds the threshold value, which can be explained by Bingham-like behavior of the smectic film. The measurements above threshold are in good agreement with existing theoretical predictions. We demonstrate experimentally that in-plane flow is well controlled by changing the acoustic pressure, excitation frequency, and geometry of the film. The observations open the way to using the phenomenon in nondisplay applications.

Reflecting and scattering of acoustic wave from sea ices

In order to build an efficient underwater acoustic sensor network in the Arctic Ocean environment, transmission characteristics of under-ice acoustic channels need comprehensive understanding. The reflecting and scattering of acoustic waves from sea ices have great influences on under-ice acoustic channels. Both topology and structure of sea surface ices are very complex and variable. The physical dimension, acoustic property and interface roughness of sea ices depend not only on local environment, but also on climate and formation time. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop a model of reflecting and scattering of acoustic waves from sea ices for investigating the sound propagation in the under-ice environment. Assuming that sea ices are a multi-layered elastic solid medium and the ice-water interface is rough and satisfies the boundary condition of perturbation, we develop a system of linear equations to solve the coherent reflection coefficient of the incident sound wave from water to sea ice. The coherent reflection coefficient is a function of the frequency of sound wave and incident grazing angle, and is numerically evaluated. The influences of ice thickness and ice-water interface roughness on the coherent reflection coefficient are analyzed. Furthermore, the method of calculating scattering coefficient by using the power spectrum density of the scattering field is introduced. The scattering coefficient as a function of the scattering grazing angle is numerically evaluated. The influences of ice thickness and ice-water interface roughness on scattering coefficient are analyzed. The results show that both the coherent reflection coefficient and the scattering coefficient are dependent on the frequency of acoustic wave, ice thickness and grazing angle. The coherent reflection coefficient is close to 1.0 and the scattering coefficient is less than 0.01 when incident grazing angle is less than 15°. In addition, the frequency of acoustic wave and ice thickness have weak influences on them. However, the frequency of acoustic wave and ice thickness have significant influences on the coherent reflection coefficient and the scattering coefficient when the incident grazing angle is big, say, greater than 30°. In general, the thicker the ice is, the smaller the coherent reflection coefficient and the scattering coefficient are. The coherent reflection coefficient is less than 0.18 when the ice thickness is greater than 10.0 m and the frequency of acoustic waves is greater than 2 kHz. The ice-water interface roughness has great influences on both the coherent reflection coefficient and the scattering coefficient. The rougher of the ice-water interface is, the smaller the coherent reflection coefficient is, and the bigger the scattering coefficient is.

Modeling Volcanic Eruption Parameters by Near-Source Internal Gravity Waves.

Volcanic explosions release large amounts of hot gas and ash into the atmosphere to form plumes rising several kilometers above eruptive vents, which can pose serious risk on human health and aviation also at several thousands of kilometers from the volcanic source. However the most sophisticate atmospheric models and eruptive plume dynamics require input parameters such as duration of the ejection phase and total mass erupted to constrain the quantity of ash dispersed in the atmosphere and to efficiently evaluate the related hazard. The sudden ejection of this large quantity of ash can perturb the equilibrium of the whole atmosphere triggering oscillations well below the frequencies of acoustic waves, down to much longer periods typical of gravity waves. We show that atmospheric gravity oscillations induced by volcanic eruptions and recorded by pressure sensors can be modeled as a compact source representing the rate of erupted volcanic mass. We demonstrate the feasibility of using gravity waves to derive eruption source parameters such as duration of the injection and total erupted mass with direct application in constraining plume and ash dispersal models.

Influence of superthermal plasma particles on the Jeans instability in self-gravitating dusty plasmas with dust charge variations

A theoretical analysis of the dust acoustic waves in the self-gravitating dusty plasmas is presented within the consideration of the superthermal electrons, ions and dust charge variations. For this purpose, the current of electrons and ions to the dust surface is calculated, and then the dispersion relation for the dust acoustic waves is obtained. It is shown that by increasing the number of superthermal particles, the growth rate of the instability increases, the dust acoustic waves frequency decreases, and the instability region is extended to the smaller wavelengths. Moreover, it is found that the ratio of the electric force to the self-gravitational force is decreased in the presence of the superthermal particles, and dust charge variations.

Dispersion properties of the phononic crystal consisting of ellipse-shaped particles

A two-dimensional model is considered in the form of a phononic crystal having a rectangular lattice with elastically interacting ellipse-shaped particles possessing two translational and one rotational degrees of freedom. The linear differential-difference equations are obtained by the method of structural modeling to describe propagation of longitudinal, transverse and rotational waves in the medium. It is found analytically how the coefficients of the equations depend on the sizes of the particle and on the parameters of interactions between them. The dispersion properties of the model are analyzed. Existence of a backward wave is established. The threshold frequencies of acoustic and rotational waves in some crystalline materials with cubic symmetry are estimated.

Effect of Machined Surface Shape on Sound Reflection

Sound reflection of materials is influenced by many factors, e.g. by material type, density, thickness, porosity, angle of sound incidence, surface shape and excitation frequency of acoustic wave. The aim of the paper is to investigate the surface shape effect of expanded polyvinylchloride material on sound reflection. For this reason polyvinylchloride samples of different surface shapes and perforations were produced on universal and CNC machine tool. The material ability to reflect sound of the investigated polyvinylchloride samples was experimentally measured by means of the transfer function method on Kundt's impedance tube. The material samples were subsequently compared in terms of their sound reflection. It was verified that the highest sound reflection was obtained in case of the smooth surface polyvinylchloride sample.

SAW Characteristics of AlN/SiO2/3C-SiC Layered Structure With Embedded Electrodes.

A layered structure of aluminum nitride (AlN)/silicon dioxide (SiO2)/cubic silicon carbide with embedded electrodes, which enables the growth of high-quality AlN thin films, is proposed and studied. The phase velocity, coupling factor, and temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of surface acoustic waves in the proposed structure have been investigated using the finite-element method. The simulation results show that a high velocity of 5485 m/s and a large effective coupling factor ( K2<sup/>) of 1.45% can be simultaneously obtained for the first mode. The dramatic enhanced K2 of 10.5% is also obtainable on the proposed structure employing Sc0.4Al0.6N thin film. Besides, the excellent zero TCF is also achieved without deteriorating the coupling factor by adding an amorphous SiO2 overlay.

The first radial-mode Lorentzian Landau damping of dust acoustic space-charge waves

The dispersion properties and the first radial-mode Lorentzian Landau damping of a dust acoustic space-charge wave propagating in a cylindrical waveguide dusty plasma which contains nonthermal electrons and ions are investigated by employing the normal mode analysis and the method of separation of variables. It is found that the frequency of dust acoustic space-charge wave increases as the wave number increases as well as the radius of cylindrical plasma does. However, the nonthermal property of the Lorentzian plasma is found to suppress the wave frequency of the dust acoustic space-charge wave. The Landau damping rate of the dust acoustic space-charge wave is derived in a cylindrical waveguide dusty plasma. The damping of the space-charge wave is found to be enhanced as the radius of cylindrical plasma and the nonthermal property increase. The maximum Lorentzian Landau damping rate is also found in a cylindrical waveguide dusty plasma. The variation of the wave frequency and the Landau damping rate due to the nonthermal character and geometric effects are also discussed.

Stability and efficacy of synthetic cationic antimicrobial peptides nebulized using high frequency acoustic waves

Surface acoustic wave (SAW), a nanometer amplitude electroelastic wave generated and propagated on low-loss piezoelectric substrates (such as LiNbO3), is an extremely efficient solid-fluid energy transfer mechanism. The present study explores the use of SAW nebulization as a solution for effective pulmonary peptide delivery. In vitro deposition characteristics of the nebulized peptides were determined using a Next Generation Cascade Impactor. 70% of the peptide-laden aerosols generated were within a size distribution favorable for deep lung distribution. The integrity of the nebulized peptides was found to be retained, as shown via mass spectrometry. The anti-mycobacterial activity of the nebulized peptides was found to be uncompromised compared with their non-nebulized counterparts, as demonstrated by the minimum inhibition concentration and the colony forming inhibition activity. The peptide concentration and volume recoveries for the SAW nebulizer were significantly higher than 90% and found to be insensitive to variation in the peptide sequences. These results demonstrate the potential of the SAW nebulization platform as an effective delivery system of therapeutic peptides through the respiratory tract to the deep lung.

On the generation of double layers from ion- and electron-acoustic instabilities

A plasma double layer (DL) is a nonlinear electrostatic structure that carries a uni-polar electric field parallel to the background magnetic field due to local charge separation. Past studies showed that DLs observed in space plasmas are mostly associated with the ion acoustic instability. Recent Van Allen Probes observations of parallel electric field structures traveling much faster than the ion acoustic speed have motivated a computational study to test the hypothesis that a new type of DLs—electron acoustic DLs—generated from the electron acoustic instability are responsible for these electric fields. Nonlinear particle-in-cell simulations yield negative results, i.e., the hypothetical electron acoustic DLs cannot be formed in a way similar to ion acoustic DLs. Linear theory analysis and the simulations show that the frequencies of electron acoustic waves are too high for ions to respond and maintain charge separation required by DLs. However, our results do show that local density perturbations in a two-electron-component plasma can result in unipolar-like electric field structures that propagate at the electron thermal speed, suggesting another potential explanation for the observations.

Antifouling Polymer Brushes Displaying Antithrombogenic Surface Properties.

The contact of blood with artificial materials generally leads to immediate protein adsorption (fouling), which mediates subsequent biological processes such as platelet adhesion and activation leading to thrombosis. Recent progress in the preparation of surfaces able to prevent protein fouling offers a potential avenue to mitigate this undesirable effect. In the present contribution, we have prepared several types of state-of-the-art antifouling polymer brushes on polycarbonate plastic substrate, and investigated their ability to prevent platelet adhesion and thrombus formation under dynamic flow conditions using human blood. Moreover, we compared the ability of such brushes--grafted on quartz via an adlayer analogous to that used on polycarbonate--to prevent protein adsorption from human blood plasma, assessed for the first time by means of an ultrahigh frequency acoustic wave sensor. Results show that the prevention of such a phenomenon constitutes one promising route toward enhanced resistance to thrombus formation, and suggest that antifouling polymer brushes could be of service in biomedical applications requiring extensive blood-material surface contact.

Nucleus factory on cavitation bubble for amyloid β fibril.

Structural evolution from monomer to fibril of amyloid β peptide is related to pathogenic mechanism of Alzheimer disease, and its acceleration is a long-running problem in drug development. This study reveals that ultrasonic cavitation bubbles behave as catalysts for nucleation of the peptide: The nucleation reaction is highly dependent on frequency and pressure of acoustic wave, and we discover an optimum acoustical condition, at which the reaction-rate constant for nucleation is increased by three-orders-of magnitudes. A theoretical model is proposed for explaining highly frequency and pressure dependent nucleation reaction, where monomers are captured on the bubble surface during its growth and highly condensed by subsequent bubble collapse, so that they are transiently exposed to high temperatures. Thus, the dual effects of local condensation and local heating contribute to dramatically enhance the nucleation reaction. Our model consistently reproduces the frequency and pressure dependences, supporting its essential applicability.

Wave propagation in water-immersed adhesive structure with the substrates of finite thickness

In previous theoretical studies on the adhesive structure, the substrate is mostly considered as a semi-infinite solid space and corresponding theoretical derivation is rarely related to the thickness of the substrate. In the paper, based on the transfer matrix method, we studied in the water-immersed trilaminar plate-like adhesive structure with the substrates of finite thickness and the perfect/sliding interfaces in the case of plane longitudinal wave incidence and deduced the expressions of reflection and transmission coefficients of longitudinal waves. In order to verify the accuracy and applicability of the deduced formula, this formula was firstly applied to the water-immersed steel–epoxy resin–steel adhesive structure with perfect interfaces and the calculated result was compared with the existing data. Taking the water-immersed aluminum–epoxy resin–aluminum adhesive structure with perfect/sliding interfaces as an example, the impacts of incident angle and frequency on the reflection and transmission characteristics of the longitudinal wave were then analyzed. Finally, the theoretical method was experimentally verified and the experimental results were well consistent with the numerical calculation results. The reflection and transmission coefficient curves of longitudinal wave showed the obvious resonance when the longitudinal wave was normally incident. Regardless of the substrate thickness, the frequency of acoustic waves or the incident angle, it can only confirm whether a sliding interface exists, but the interface to slide cannot be determined.

Experimental determination of the viscous flow permeability of porous materials by measuring reflected low frequency acoustic waves

An acoustic reflectivity method is proposed for measuring the permeability or flow resistivity of air-saturated porous materials. In this method, a simplified expression of the reflection coefficient is derived in the Darcy's regime (low frequency range), which does not depend on frequency and porosity. Numerical simulations show that the reflection coefficient of a porous material can be approximated by its simplified expression obtained from its Taylor development to the first order. This approximation is good especially for resistive materials (of low permeability) and for the lower frequencies. The permeability is reconstructed by solving the inverse problem using waves reflected by plastic foam samples, at different frequency bandwidths in the Darcy regime. The proposed method has the advantage of being simple compared to the conventional methods that use experimental reflected data, and is complementary to the transmissivity method, which is more adapted to low resistive materials (high permeability).

Measuring the radiation force of megahertz ultrasound acting on a solid spherical scatterer

The paper considers the problem of precise measurement of the acoustic radiation force of an ultrasonic beam on targets in the form of solid spherical scatterers. Using known analytic relations, a numerical model is developed to perform calculations for different sizes of spherical scatterers and arbitrary frequencies of the incident acoustic wave. A novel method is proposed for measuring the radiation force, which is based on the principle of acoustic echolocation. The radiation force is measured experimentally in a wide range of incident wave intensities using two chosen methods differing in the way the location of the target is controlled.

Acoustically enhanced heat transport.

We investigate the enhancement of heat transfer in the nucleate boiling regime by inducing high frequency acoustic waves (f ∼ 10(6) Hz) on the heated surface. In the experiments, liquid droplets (deionized water) are dispensed directly onto a heated, vibrating substrate. At lower vibration amplitudes (ξs ∼ 10(-9) m), the improved heat transfer is mainly due to the detachment of vapor bubbles from the heated surface and the induced thermal mixing. Upon increasing the vibration amplitude (ξs ∼ 10(-8) m), the heat transfer becomes more substantial due to the rapid bursting of vapor bubbles happening at the liquid-air interface as a consequence of capillary waves travelling in the thin liquid film between the vapor bubble and the air. Further increases then lead to rapid atomization that continues to enhance the heat transfer. An acoustic wave displacement amplitude on the order of 10(-8) m with 10(6) Hz order frequencies is observed to produce an improvement of up to 50% reduction in the surface temperature over the case without acoustic excitation.

Production of acoustic waves from pulsed thermal radiation

Generation of acoustic waves from a pulsed thermal radiation beam was experimentally investigated in this paper. Unlike other TACs (thermal acoustic converters), acoustic wave frequencies and phases of this type of TACs can be easily adjusted and controlled—a feature essential to the synchronization of TACs in an array. The TACs we developed were made up of a cylindrical aluminum housing, a glass cover, and metallic wool for effective thermal-to-acoustic energy conversion. Radiation emitted from an infrared heater was chopped at a constant frequency prior to entering the converter through the glass cover. The metallic wool was periodically heated by the pulsed radiation beam and cooled because of heat losses to the surroundings. Experiments were conducted for different converter designs and metallic wools, as well as different chopper speeds and radiation intensities. The amplitudes of generated sound waves were found to be dependent on the radiation intensity, the grade and properties of the metallic wool, and the cooling rate of the wool. Higher radiation intensities and thinner wools of lower thermal conductivity produced sounds of higher amplitude. More effective cooling of the metallic wool also helped. Acoustic energy output can also be enhanced by reducing the amount of air in the converter. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

FEM simulation of AlN thin layers on diamond substrates for high frequency SAW devices

AlN/Diamond structure is very promising for high frequency acoustic wave devices. In this paper, a comprehensive investigation of AlN/Diamond structure is presented using finite element method. The phase velocity and the coupling coefficient of the first two modes of SAWs for the AlN/Diamond structure are numerically analyzed and compared to experimental data. Close agreement between experimental and numerical results is obtained. Results show that the mode 1 (Sezawa mode) exhibits the largest coupling coefficient of 1.28% associated with a phase velocity of 9500m/s. Additionally, the temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) and the reflection coefficient (r) are studied. The simulation results show that for a zero TCF, a high phase velocity of 10,800m/s associated with a coupling coefficient of 0.5% can be obtained. These results demonstrate that the AlN/Diamond structure can be used to design wide-band and temperature-compensated SAW devices. The dependence of SAW devices performance with the electrode height, metallization ratio and mass-loading is also investigated.

Effect of large deflection angle on the laser intensity profile produced by acousto-optic deflector scanners in high precision manufacturing

Laser beam scanners have found wide applications in a variety of laser-assisted advanced microprocessing technologies such as printing, patterning, and doping. Traditional galvo-scanners affect the accuracy of beam positioning and repeatability in high precision manufacturing due to mechanical motion of the mirrors and backlash errors. The purpose of this study is to analyze an acousto-optic deflector (AOD) to achieve high diffraction efficiency and high deflection angle. Conventional AODs are operated with one-dimensional refractive index variation induced by modulating only the acoustic wave frequency. The effect of two-dimensional refractive index variations, which can be achieved by modulating both the phase and frequency of the acoustic waves, is analyzed. This study, therefore, advances the current AOD technology from just acoustic wave frequency modulation to a new class of AODs involving both phase and frequency modulations. This new type of AOD is designed by developing an analytic model based on the propagation of a laser beam through the AOD in which the refractive index varies in two dimensions. The model predicts a specific index modulation strength to achieve 100% diffraction efficiency. Also a fairly large diffraction efficiency can be obtained over a large angle of incidence, which is not possible in conventional AODs where the maximum diffraction efficiency occurs only at Bragg angle of incidence.