Degeneration of flow pattern in acousto-elastic flow through sharp-edge microchannels

Acoustic streaming (AS) is the steady time-averaged flow generated by acoustic field, which has been widely used in enhancing mixing and particle manipulation. Current researches on acoustic streaming mainly focus on Newtonian fluids, while many biological and chemical solutions exhibit non-Newtonian properties. The acoustic streaming in viscoelastic fluids has been studied experimentally for the first time in this paper. We found that the addition of polyethylene oxide (PEO) polymer to the Newtonian fluid significantly altered the flow characteristics in the microchannel. The resulting acousto-elastic flow showed two modes: positive mode and negative mode. Specifically, the viscoelastic fluids under acousto-elastic flow exhibit mixing hysteresis features at low flow rates, and degeneration of flow pattern at high flow rates. Through quantitative analysis, the degeneration of flow pattern is further summarized as time fluctuation and spatial disturbance range reduction. The positive mode in acousto-elastic flow can be used for the mixing enhancement of viscoelastic fluids in the micromixer, while the negative mode provides a potential method for particle/cell manipulation in viscoelastic body fluids such as saliva by suppressing unstable flow.     

Investigation on influencing factors of acoustic streaming in thermoacoustic waveguides with slowly varying cross-section

The influencing factors of acoustic streaming in thermoacoustic waveguides with slowly varying cross-section are analyzed based on theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The distribution curves of acoustic streaming velocity in waveguides with different characteristic scales are presented in several specific cases.The results show that appropriate forms of varying cross-section can strengthen or weaken acoustic streaming for specific acoustic fields and the thermophysical parameters have no effect on this part.In addition,the influence of time-average temperature distribution on acoustic streaming is substantial in tubes with a width of the order of the thermal penetration depth.Without time-average temperature distribution,the effect of heat conduction on acoustic streaming is great in tubes whose width is an order of about 10 to 20 times the viscous penetration depth.     

Use of plasma polymerisation process for fabrication of bio-MEMS for micro-fluidic devices

Using a plasma polymerisation process with optical lithography, wet and dry etching techniques we have fabricated an organic micro-fluidic device (OMDF) on silicon/glass substrate. An asymmetric electrode array used in micro-fluidic device (MFD) with small electrode (4 μm wide) separated from the large electrode (20 μm wide) by 20 μm and 6 μm gaps in both sides respectively. In this study we have found that plasma polymerisation process is not only important for changing the surface chemical and physical properties but also has advantage in bonding of these micro devices at low temperature (∼100 °C) due to low T_g of polymeric material. The fluidic velocity measurement shows a maximum of about 450 μm/s in a 150 μm channel width of organic micro-fluidic devices after plasma surface modification.     

Characterization of acoustic streaming in water and aluminum melt during ultrasonic irradiation

It is well known that ultrasonic cavitation causes a steady flow termed acoustic streaming. In the present study, the velocity of acoustic streaming in water and molten aluminum is measured. The method is based on the measurement of oscillation frequency of Karman vortices around a cylinder immersed into liquid. For the case of acoustic streaming in molten metal, such measurements were performed for the first time. Four types of experiments were conducted in the present study: (1) Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement in a water bath to measure the acoustic streaming velocity visually, (2) frequency measurement of Karman vortices generated around a cylinder in water, and (3) in aluminum melt, and (4) cavitation intensity measurements in molten aluminum. Based on the measurement results (1) and (2), the Strouhal number for acoustic streaming was determined. Then, using the same Strouhal number and measuring oscillation frequency of Karman vortices in aluminum melt, the acoustic streaming velocity was measured. The velocity of acoustic streaming was found to be independent of amplitude of sonotrode tip oscillation both in water and aluminum melt. This can be explained by the effect of acoustic shielding and liquid density.     

Fluid Mixing Enhanced by Surface Acoustic Waves in a Micro-Cavity

Acoustical Physics - One big challenge in micro-fluidic systems is that the mixing efficiency by molecular free diffusion is too low, especially when the viscosity of the fluids is high. In this...     

Acoustic streaming induced by ultrasonic flexural vibrations and associated enhancement of convective heat transfer

Acoustic streaming induced by ultrasonic flexural vibrations and the associated convection enhancement are investigated. Acoustic streaming pattern, streaming velocity, and associated heat transfer characteristics are experimentally observed. Moreover, analytical analysis based on Nyborg's formulation is performed along with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using a numerical solver CFX 4.3. Two distinctive acoustic streaming patterns in half-wavelength of the flexural vibrations are observed, which agree well with the theory. However, acoustic streaming velocities obtained from CFD simulation, based on the incompressible flow assumption, exceed the theoretically estimated velocity by a factor ranging from 10 to 100, depending upon the location along the beam. Both CFD simulation and analytical analysis reveal that the acoustic streaming velocity is proportional to the square of the vibration amplitude and the wavelength of the vibrating beam that decreases with the excitation frequency. It is observed that the streaming velocity decreases with the excitation frequency. Also, with an open-ended channel, a substantial increase in streaming velocity is observed from CFD simulations. Using acoustic streaming, a temperature drop of 40 degrees C with a vibration amplitude of 25 microm at 28.4 kHz is experimentally achieved.     

Acoustic streaming in a rotating fluid

Acoustic streaming theory is derived that is applicable to a fluid that is slow moving in a reference frame that rotates with a constant angular velocity omega. A simplified streaming equation is obtained for the special case in which the acoustic angular frequency omega is large relative to omega, and the change in fluid density due to rotation alone is negligible. For this special case it is shown that the "driving force" for the acoustic streaming is independent of omega. Thus, if no acoustic streaming is present in a fluid system that is stationary, then no steady-state acoustic streaming is predicted for a similar system that rotates with constant angular velocity. For a system in which acoustic streaming is present, the flow behavior depends on the relative magnitudes of the Coriolis forces and the viscous forces. If the Ekman number is large (that is, the viscous force dominates) then the predicted flow is identical to that which would exist in a stationary system. If, on the other hand, the Ekman number is small then the Coriolis force dominates and the component of flow in the direction of the axis of rotation can be much smaller in the rotating system than in a similar system at rest.     

声波作用下球形颗粒外声流分布的数值模拟

综合考虑声学边界层内的热损失和黏性损失,建立处于平面驻波声压波节位置二维球形颗粒外声流计算模型,利用分离时间尺度的数值方法对颗粒外声流流场特征进行模拟。将模拟结果与相应的解析解和实验结果对比,验证了数值模拟的可靠性。在此基础上,研究了雷诺数Re和斯特劳哈尔数Sr对球形颗粒声学边界层内二阶声流流场结构、涡流强度及范围的影响规律。结果表明,随Sr和Re增大,声学边界层内的涡流结构尺度呈指数形式减小,其涡流尺度与颗粒直径D和激励频率f成反比,与流体介质运动黏度v成正比;且满足低Sr和高Re的声振系统可形成范围较大、更强烈的声流运动。该数值方法可用于对任意物理模型外声流特性的评估。      

Controlling the acoustic streaming by pulsed ultrasounds

We propose a technique based on pulsed ultrasounds for controlling, reducing to a minimum observable value the acoustic streaming in closed ultrasonic standing wave fluidic resonators. By modifying the number of pulses and the repetition time it is possible to reduce the velocity of the acoustic streaming with respect to the velocity generated by the continuous ultrasound mode of operation. The acoustic streaming is observed at the nodal plane where a suspension of 800 nm latex particles was focused by primary radiation force. A mixture of 800 nm and 15 μm latex particles has been also used for showing that the acoustic streaming is hardly reduced while primary and secondary forces continue to operate. The parameter we call “pulse mode factor” i.e. the time of applied ultrasound divided by the duty cycle, is found to be the adequate parameter that controls the acoustic streaming. We demonstrate that pulsed ultrasound is more efficient for controlling the acoustic streaming than the variation of the amplitude of the standing waves.