Power ultrasound and its applications: A state-of-the-art review

Ultrasonic processing has attracted increasing attention by people because ultrasonic technology may represent a flexible ‘green’ alternative for energy efficient processes. The major challenges for the power ultrasound application in real situations are the design and development of specific power ultrasonic systems for large-scale operations. Thus, new families of power ultrasonic transducers have been developed in recent years to meet actual needs, and this contributes to the implementation of power ultrasound of application in many fields such as chemical industry, food industry and manufacturing. This paper presents the current state of ultrasonic transducers of magnetostrictiv type and piezoelectric type as well as applications of power ultrasound in various industrial fields including chemical reactions, drying/dehydration, welding, extraction, heat transfer enhancement, de-ice, enhanced oil recovery, droplet atomization, cleaning and fine particle removal. The review paper helps to understand the current development of power ultrasonic technology and its applications in various situations, and induce extended applications of power ultrasound to more and more fields.     

单极随钻声波测井换能器感知信号类型的研究

在假定钻铤是光滑的提前下，前人理论模拟了随钻测井的声压波形，但未发表关于理论波形与实验波形的比较的文章。为了认识测量信号所对应的力学类型及相应类型的钻铤波在钻铤内的分布，本文将理论模拟的随钻声波测井波形与实验波形进行对比。与前人单独考虑压电效应或井孔传播效应不同，本文模拟单极随钻声波测井响应时，将发射器、接收器、光滑钻铤和井孔结构作为一个整体，采用有限元法计算模拟了电压源激励下接收器纪录的声压信号和位移信号。将模拟的声压波形与电压信号进行比较，发现二者的钻铤波与斯通利波相对幅值相差较大，而模拟的径向位移波形更接近电压信号。进一步比较理论波形与小模型井内实验测量到的电压信号，证实电压信号更接近位移信号而与声压信号差异明显。这表明当钻铤光滑时，单极随钻声波测井换能器感知的主要是径向位移信号。研究还表明声压信号中的钻铤波能量主要集中在钻铤内壁，径向位移信号中的钻铤波能量主要集中在钻铤外壁。     

一种拓宽匹配层换能器带宽的方法

本文介绍了一种拓宽匹配层换能器带宽的方法,通过单端激励以同时激发换能器的奇次和偶次谐波,以此来达到拓宽匹配层换能器带宽的目的。运用有限元软件ANSYS进行了建模分析计算,对其设计过程、测量结果作了分析介绍。样品换能器在10kHz～30kHz的频段内,发送电压响应起伏为±3.3dB。     

Numerical assessment of ultrasound supported coalescence of water droplets in crude oil

In this study, a numerical assessment of the coalescence of binary water droplets in water-in-oil emulsion was conducted. The investigation addressed the effect of various parameters on the acoustic pressure and coalescence time of water droplets in oil phase. These include transducer material, initial droplet diameter (0.05–0.2 in), interfacial tension (0.012–0.082 N/m), dynamic viscosity (10.6–530 mPas), temperature (20–100 °C), US (ultra sound) frequency (26.04–43.53 kHz) and transducer power (2.5–40 W). The materials assessed are lead zirconate titanate (PZT), lithium niobate (LiNbO₃), zinc oxide (ZnO), aluminum nitride (AlN), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and barium titanate (BaTiO₃). The numerical simulation of the binary droplet coalescence showed good agreement with experimental data in the literature. The US implementation at a fixed frequency produced enhanced coalescence (t = 5.9–8.5 ms) as compared to gravitational settling (t = 9.8 ms). At different ultrasound (US) frequencies and transducer materials, variation in the acoustic pressure distribution was observed. Possible attenuation of the US waves, and the subsequent inhibitive coalescence effect under various US frequencies and viscosities, were discussed. Moreover, the results showed that the coalescence time reduced across the range of interfacial tensions which was considered. This reduction can be attributed to the fact that lower interfacial tension produces emulsions which are relatively more stable. Hence, at lower interface tension between the water and crude oil, there was more resistance to the coalescence of the water droplets due to their improved emulsion stability. The increment of the Weber number at higher droplet sizes leads to a delay in the recovery of the droplet to spherical forms after their starting deformation. These findings provide significant insights that could aid further developments in demulsification of crude oil emulsions under varying US and emulsion properties.     

Design parameters of stainless steel plates for maximizing high frequency ultrasound wave transmission

This work validated, in a higher frequency range, the theoretical predictions made by Boyle around 1930, which state that the optimal transmission of sound pressure through a metal plate occurs when the plate thickness equals a multiple of half the wavelength of the sound wave. Several reactor design parameters influencing the transmission of high frequency ultrasonic waves through a stainless steel plate were examined. The transmission properties of steel plates of various thicknesses (1–7 mm) were studied for frequencies ranging from 400 kHz to 2 MHz and at different distances between plates and transducers. It was shown that transmission of sound pressure through a steel plate showed high dependence of the thickness of the plate to the frequency of the sound wave (thickness ratio). Maximum sound pressure transmission of ∼60% of the incident pressure was observed when the ratio of the plate thickness to the applied frequency was a multiple of a half wavelength (2 MHz, 6 mm stainless steel plate). In contrast, minimal sound pressure transmission (∼10–20%) was measured for thickness ratios that were not a multiple of a half wavelength. Furthermore, the attenuation of the sound pressure in the transmission region was also investigated. As expected, it was confirmed that higher frequencies have more pronounced sound pressure attenuation than lower frequencies. The spatial distribution of the sound pressure transmitted through the plate characterized by sonochemiluminescence measurements using luminol emission, supports the validity of the pressure measurements in this study.     

Coupling a universal DNA circuit with graphene sheets/polyaniline/AuNPs nanocomposites for the detection of BCR/ABL fusion gene

This article described a novel method by coupling a universal DNA circuit with graphene sheets/polyaniline/AuNPs nanocomposites (GS/PANI/AuNPs) for highly sensitive and specific detection of BCR/ABL fusion gene (bcr/abl) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). DNA circuit known as catalyzed hairpin assembly (CHA) is enzyme-free and can be simply operated to achieve exponential amplification, which has been widely employed in biosensing. However, application of CHA has been hindered by the need of specially redesigned sequences for each single-stranded DNA input. Herein, a transducer hairpin (HP) was designed to obtain a universal DNA circuit with favorable signal-to-background ratio. To further improve signal amplification, GS/PANI/AuNPs with excellent conductivity and enlarged effective area were introduced into this DNA circuit. Consequently, by combining the advantages of CHA and GS/PANI/AuNPs, bcr/abl could be detected in a linear range from 10 pM to 20 nM with a detection limit of 1.05 pM. Moreover, this protocol showed excellent specificity, good stability and was successfully applied for the detection of real sample, which demonstrated its great potential in clinical application.     

亥姆霍兹效应和文丘里效应复合型换能器设计*

为合理地从环境中获取能量为无线传感网络和微电子低功耗设备提供能量,该文提出了一种亥姆霍兹效应 和 文丘里效应复合型的换能器结构,收集环境中的能量转换为电能。该装置主要由文丘里管和亥姆霍兹共振器组成。声-结构-电多域耦合仿真,结果表明：换能器传递损失峰值以及电能最大值均发生在245 Hz处,系统共振时,能量转换效率最高。设计了整流桥调理电路与超级电容储能电路,开展了换能器的驱动能力测试,结果表明：换能器所产生的最高电压出现在结构的固有频率245 Hz处,计算得到功率为128.79 μW,实验与理论计算偏差为3.36%;换能器单元在空气压缩机气压为2 kPa的气流作用下可产生0.1148 V电压。     

磁致伸缩换能器辐射板形状对声场分布的影响

磁致伸缩换能器可作为热声制冷机的声源装置,辐射板的形状直接影响声压输出效率,从而影响制冷效果。为提高换能器工作效率、减小换能器体积,辐射板需在Terfenol-D棒的激励下产生大振幅、高频率的活塞振型。针对这一问题,应用ATILA软件分析了磁致伸缩换能器辐射板形状对谐振腔振动幅频特性的影响以及对谐振腔内声场分布的影响。结果表明:相同激励条件下,凹球面辐射板出现活塞振型时振幅最大,对应谐振腔中声压幅值最高;谐振腔端面形状为凹球面时,具有聚焦声压幅值的作用;端面形状为凹发射端-凸反射端组合的谐振腔内声压幅值最高。以上结论为合理设计辐射板、谐振腔两端面组合形状提供了参考。     

一种保证超声清洗机性能的换能器大功率测试方法

本文较详细地叙述了生产超声清洗机过程中，对换能器频率，频带宽度，阻抗等参数实施一种简单而实用的大功率测试法，据此进行筛选来提高超声清洗机的性能。     

激光测距在测量船舶近场辐射噪声中的应用

本文主要阐述在海上测量船舶的近场辐射噪声中，利用激光测距，快速，准确得到了被测船舶与测量水听器之间的正横距离。