Browsing by study line "Elektronik och industrifysik"

Power ultrasound increases production efficiency in the industry, and therefore reduces emissions. This advantage arises from the ability of ultrasound to mitigate fouling. Ultrasound solution requires clamping the transducers onto the external wall of the production equipment, typically made of steel. A challenge then arises, since mechanical loading by the wall hampers the natural resonating of the ultrasonic transducer and therefore reduces power transmission. To overcome this limitation, airgap contact coupling (ACC) is proposed. ACC features an airgap to reduce the mechanical loading and two protruding elements for mechanical contacting and sound delivery. Finite-element method (FEM) simulations are employed to evaluate the physical mechanisms behind ACC. For the comparison, direct traditional contact coupling (TCC) is evaluated. To assess the acoustic power delivery by ACC and TCC, calorimetric measurements were used. A water-filled stainless-steel pipe with a 2 mm thick wall and 136 mm outer diameter was sonicated. To prevent heat transmission to ambient air, it was covered by isolating foam. ACC and TCC were sonicated at their coupled resonance frequencies, respectively at 19.2 kHz and 28.1 kHz. A power delivery ratio was determined by the calorimetric power against the sonication power. ACC resulted in a power delivery ratio of 27.4±6.3 % whereas that for TCC was 6.1±0.6 %. ACC was thereby shown to transmit 6 dB more acoustic power than TCC. In conclusion, a novel contact coupling method is proposed for industrial metal-walled equipment. The proposed new approach enhances the utility of power ultrasound for online cleaning and prevention.

High-intensity and -amplitude focused ultrasound has been used to induce cavitation for decades. Well known applications are medical (lithotripsy and histotripsy) and industrial ones (particle cleaning, erosion, sonochemistry). These applications often use low frequencies (0.1-5 MHz), which limits the spatial precision of the actuation, and the chaotic nature of inertial cavitation is rarely monitored or compensated for, constituting a source of uncertainty. We demonstrate the use of high-frequency (12 MHz) high-intensity (ISPTA=90 W/cm2 ) focused-ultrasound- induced cavitation to locally remove solid material (pits with a diameter of 20 µm to 200 µm) for non- contact sampling. We demonstrate breaking cohesion (aluminium) and adhesion (thin film on a substrate, i.e. marker ink on microscope glass). The eroded surfaces were analyzed with a scanning acoustic microscope (SAM). We present the assembly and the characterization of a focused ultrasound transducer and show quantification of the effect of different sonication parameters (amplitude, cycle count, burst count, defocus) on the size and shape of the resulting erosion pits. The quantitative precision of this method is achieved by systematic calibration measurements, linking the resulting erosion to acoustic parameters to ensure repeatability (sufficient probability of cavitation), and inertial cavitation monitoring of the focal echoes. We discuss the usability of this method for localized non-contact sampling.

Nonlinear acoustic and electric effects for the purposes of fluid and fluid-fluid interface manipulation find many applications in the literature. Some examples include: electrospinning, electrospraying, ultrasonic sonoreactors, acoustic drop sampling and microfluidic particle manipulation via acoustic streaming. Ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) is one application in which both an acoustic and an electric field deform the surface of an aqueous polymer solution in order to achieve electrospinning of nanofibers. In this thesis, the nonlinear physics involved in USES are reviewed and applied to a finite element method based model of the system. This work builds on my previous publication on acoustic fountain formation and subsequent electrostatic deformation of a liquid-air interface in USES by also considering the effects of acoustic streaming. Results for acoustic streaming near a liquid-air interface in a case where the acoustic field is also focused around the interface are studied with simulations and compared against experiments. The results display an intricate balance of the shape and strength of the acoustic streaming field as the liquid-air interface simultaneously deforms. This even leads to situations where the streaming field could completely change direction. Finally, simulation predictions for acoustic streaming, fountain formation and electrostatic deformation of liquid-air interface in the USES set-up in its standard configuration are given. This simulation predicts a very weak acoustic streaming field and a smaller contribution from the electric field, compared to the acoustic field, on the interface forces. This implies that in the simulated configuration, the electric field serves more as force to pull the acoustic fountain a bit more in order for the acoustic field to find its new balance and exert an even stronger force than it was able to by itself. The simulation also indicates that for the robust and reproducible operation of USES, and possibly for the resulting nanofibers, one needs to have precise control of the process parameters, acoustic field and surface level, due to the complex nature of the fountain formation.

Dendrite prevention can be achieved by manipulating the local chemical concentration gradient by ultrasound. An ultrasonic field, which generates acoustic streaming, can manipulate the ionic flux at the electrode surface by altering the local ion concentration gradient at said surface according to the streaming pattern. The pattern is determined by the ultrasonic field and the geometry of the sonication volume. The preventive action can be directed to an arbitrary point on the surface, or be swept across it to achieve a smoother electroplating. Dendritic growth is concentrated to areas of higher concentration gradient. This is because at the electrode surface both the electric and convective fluxes tend to zero. If the reduction of ions into their metallic form is fast enough, the metal layer growth rate is determined by the diffusive flux, which is determined by the ion concentration gradient and the diffusion constant of the ion in the electrolyte. In this study, tin was used as the transported ion instead of lithium for safety reasons. A custom-made battery mockup cell was constructed for the experiments. The anode was imaged with a usb microscope camera to determine the growth of the dendrites during the process. The electroplating current and piezo driving power were varied between 100 mA to 275 mA and 0 to 6.6 W, respectively. With piezo driving electrical power less than 10 W, it was possible to lower the maximum lengths of dendrites. Finite element method simulations were conducted to validate the hypothesis and experimental results. This ultrasonic method could be used to allow rechargeable, lightweight, high capacity lithium metal batteries. The piezos could be integrated into battery chargers.

Acoustic levitation permits non-contacting particle manipulation. The position and orientation of the levitated particle can be controlled by altering the acoustic field. Existing acoustic levitators have employed a single frequency which limits the types of acoustic traps that can be created. The use of multiple frequencies makes it possible to control the forces acting on a particle independently in all directions. I predict theoretically the forces acting on particles placed in the acoustic fields created with multiple coexisting frequencies. I present two traps which demonstrate the benefits of multifrequency acoustic levitation. To realize the traps, I constructed a 450-channel phased array acoustic levitator with individual frequency, phase, and amplitude control for each channel.

Lipid-based solid-fat substitutes (such as oleogels) structurally modified using ultrasonic standing waves (USW), have recently been shown to potentially increase oleogel storage-stability. To enable their potential application in food products, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, practical and economical production methods are needed compared to previous work, where USW treated oleogel production was limited to 50-500 µL. The purpose of this work is to improve upon the previous procedure of producing structurally modified oleogels via the use of USW by developing a scaled up and convenient approach. To this aim, three different USW chamber prototypes were designed and developed, with common features in mind to: (i) increase process volumes to 10-100 mL, (ii) make the sample extractable from the treatment chamber, (iii) avoid contact between the sample and the ultrasonic transducer. Imaging of the internal structure of USW treated oleogels was used as the determining factor of successful chamber design. The best design was subsequently used to produce USW treated oleogels, of which the bulk mechanical properties were studied using uniaxial compression tests, along with local mechanical properties, investigated using scanning acoustic microscopy. Results elucidated the mechanical behaviour of oleogels as foam-like. Finally, the stability of treated oleogels was compared to control samples using an automated image analysis oil release test. This work enables the effective mechanical-structural manipulation of oleogels in volumes of 10-100 mL, paving the way to possible large-scale lipid-based materials USW treatments.

Pipe fouling is a challenging problem in many industrial applications. Established cleaning techniques require that the production is aborted during the cleaning phase. These techniques are unable to focus cleaning power, even though fouling often is localized to certain areas inside the pipeline. This study introduces an effective method to clean fouling inside complex structures. We use finite-element modelling (FEM) -based time-reversed signals to focus ultrasound power onto a predetermined pipe residing inside a Plexiglas container. We compare the cleaning effect obtained by this method with the cleaning obtained with standard ultrasound cleaning when using the same input electric power and cleaning time. Our results indicate that the proposed time-reversal based technique removes more fouling compared to when using the standard technique. Moreover, we demonstrate ability to relocate the focus including changing the target from one pipe to another one inside the container.