Ultrasonic inspection of batters for on-line process monitoring

A new method for on-line batter monitoring using ultrasound techniques is presented. Air or gas incorporation is done during the beating process which produces bubbles in the mixture. The density and the compressibility of the batter vary as a function of mixing time and are quality index of batter. Traditionally, a batter sample of a fixed volume is removed and weighted in order to determine its density. This is a time consuming process. Batters are air filled mixtures of high viscosity which do not support significant transmission of ultrasound. For this reason conventional ultrasonic density sensors for liquids are not suitable for this application. Therefore, a special transducer has been developed. The sensor was constructed using a piezoelectric ceramic at the fundamental frequency of 1 MHz. Instead of measuring density, in this work, changes in compressibility in batters are monitored by measuring the acoustic impedance of the batter. Main advantage of this novel approach is that changes in acoustic impedance are easier to detect than changes in density especially when air incorporation is in small quantities. Experimental results on different liquids and batters with different gas contents are presented and discussed.     

Study of acoustic parameters of binary mixtures of a nonpolar liquid with polar liquid at different frequencies

The densities (ρ) and ultrasonic velocities (C) of binary mixture of diisopropyl ether (DIPE) and bromobenzene (BB) have been measured at different frequencies (1 MHz, 3 MHz and 5 MHz) over the entire range of mole fraction of diisopropyl ether (DIPE) at temperature 303 K. The intermolecular free length (L _f ), isentropic compressibility (β), acoustic impedance (Z) and excess values of isentropic compressibility (β ^E ) and acoustic impedance (Z^E) have been computed using values of ultrasonic velocity (C) and density (ρ). The ultrasonic velocity, intermolecular free length are positive whereas the excess values of isentropic compressibility and acoustic impedance are negative over the entire composition range of DIPE which indicates presence of specific interactions between unlike molecules. The results are discussed in the light of intermolecular interactions occurring in the mixtures.      

Effect of frequency on acoustic parameters in a binary mixture of polar liquids

The densities (α) and ultrasonic velocities (C) of binary mixtures of a polar liquid like acetone and toluene have been measured at different frequencies (lMHz, 3MHz and 5MHz) over the entire range of mole fraction of acetone at temperature 303.16k. The intermolecular free length (L _f ), isentropic compressibility (β), acoustic impedance (Z), excess values of isentropic compressibility (β ^E ) and acoustic impedance (Z ^E ) have been computed using values of ultrasonic velocity (C) and density (α). The ultrasonic velocity (C), intermolecular free length (L _f ) and excess values of isentropic compressibility are positive whereas excess values of acoustic impedance is negative for the entire composition range which indicates the specific interaction between unlike molecules. The results are discussed in the light of intermolecular interactions occurring in the solutions.     

In-line concentration measurement in complex liquids using ultrasonic sensors

Recently there has been increased demand for chemical sensors measuring in-line the concentration of selected substances in complex liquids in order to guarantee a high product quality in the process industry. At present there is a great interest in acoustic sensor systems for concentration measurements. This article presents a new ultrasonic sensor system consisting of a miniaturized multi-sensor arrangement for the comprehensive acoustic characterization of liquid mixtures. The sensor system measures sound velocity, impedance coefficient, attenuation coefficient and temperature.     

压电矢量传感器的低噪声设计

针对压电矢量传感器的低噪声设计问题,建立了基于压电敏感器件、悬挂结构、前置放大电路及电缆的同振式矢量传感器等效自噪声分析模型;结合敏感器件的低噪声设计、悬挂结构对自噪声的影响以及前置放大电路低噪声匹配等内容提出了一种低噪声设计方法。设计了低噪声矢量传感器样机,研制了自噪声测量平台并对样机进行了测试。结果表明:样机的等效噪声声压谱级达到了55.5 dB/√Hz2@200 Hz,低于同频率Knudsen零级海况下海洋环境噪声;测试结果与设计结果相符,验证了低噪声设计方法的有效性,也为压电矢量传感器的低噪声设计提供了理论依据。     

Clad polymer buffer rods for polymer process monitoring

Clad polymer buffer rods consisting of a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) core and a cladding made of a heat resistance epoxy aluminum composite are presented. The core has a uniform diameter or a taper shape. Ultrasonic measurement results indicate that the ultrasonic signal strength and signal to noise ratio of these clad rods are better than those of the non-clad PEEK rods for both longitudinal and shear waves because of the improved ultrasonic wave guidance in the core. Comparisons of these rods with those made of polymide and high-density polyethylene are given. Applications of these buffer rods for ultrasonic monitoring of polymer extrusion at temperatures up to 200 degrees C and pressures up to 180 psi are demonstrated. The monitoring results also reveal that within certain operating temperature and pressure range, clad polymer buffer rods show advantages over clad steel buffer rods.     

利用应电压测量粘度

粘度是流体的重要物理特性,也是很多液态工业产品的一项重要质量指标。在不少工业生产过程中,粘度测量是控制生产流程、实现安全生产、提高及保证产品质量、节约与开发能源的重要手段。超声检测方法由于其易于实现在线测量的特性而在工业测量中得到极其广泛的应用。本文从理论上分析了利用应电压进行超声波测量可行性,推导出粘度与声阻抗、声阻抗与应电压的关系,由此证明粘度与应电压在一定温度、一定频率下的一一对应关系。     

Computational aeroacoustic simulations of leading-edge slat flow

High-lift devices on modern airliners are a major contributor to overall airframe noise. In this paper the aeroacoustics of leading-edge slat devices in a high-lift configuration are investigated computationally. A hierarchical methodology is used to enable the rapid evaluation of different slat configurations. The overall goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the noise generation and amplification mechanisms in and around the slat, and the effects of slat system geometry.In order to perform parametric studies of the aeroacoustics, a simplified 2-D model of the slat is used. The flow and aeroacoustics are computed using a compressible, unsteady, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes code. A robust buffer zone boundary condition is used to prevent the reflection of outgoing acoustic waves from contaminating the long-time solution. A Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings solver is used to compute the far field acoustic field from the unsteady flow solution and determine the directivity. The spanwise correlation length used is derived from experimental data of this high-lift configuration. The effect of spanwise correlation length on the acoustic far field is examined.The aeroacoustics of the slat system are largely governed by the geometry, especially in terms of slat overlap. We perform a study of the effects of trailing edge thickness, horizontal and vertical overlap settings for the slat on near field wave propagation and far field directivity. The implications for low-noise leading edge slat design are discussed.     

Study of intermolecular interactions in binary mixtures of 2′-chloro-4-methoxy-3-nitro benzil in various solvents and at different concentrations by the measurement of acoustic properties

Density (ρ), ultrasonic velocity (u), adiabatic compressibility (β), apparent molar volume (Ø), acoustic impedance (Z), intermolecular free length (L_f), relative association (RA) of binary mixtures of 2′-chloro-4-methoxy-3-nitro benzil (abbreviated as 2CBe) in ethanol, acetonitrile, chloroform, dioxane and benzene were measured at different concentrations at 298 K. Several useful parameters such as excess density, excess ultrasonic velocity, excess adiabatic compressibility, excess apparent molar volume, excess acoustic impedance and excess intermolecular free length have been calculated. These parameters are used to explain the nature of intermolecular interactions taking place in the binary mixture. The above study is useful in understanding the solute – solvent interactions occurring in different concentrations at room temperature.     

Vibration of piezoelectric elements surrounded by fluid media

In this paper we analyse vibrational characteristics of piezoceramic shells surrounded by acoustic media. Main results are presented for radially polarized piezoceramic PZT5 elements of hollow cylindrical shapes. The coupling in the radial direction between the solid and the acoustic media is accounted for indirectly, via impedance boundary conditions. The model based on such impedance boundary condition approximations offers a robust simplified alternative to a full scale fluid-solid interaction modelling. By using this model, we analyse numerically the influence of the boundary conditions imposed in the axial direction for long, medium, and short (disk-like) piezoceramic elements.     

A full vectorial contrast source inversion scheme for three-dimensional acoustic imaging of both compressibility and density profiles

Imaging the two acoustic medium parameters density and compressibility requires the use of both the acoustic pressure and velocity wave fields, described via integral equations. Imaging is based on solving for the unknown medium parameters using known measured scattered wave fields, and it is difficult to solve this ill-posed inverse problem directly using a conjugate gradient inversion scheme. Here, a contrast source inversion method is used in which the contrast sources, defined via the product of changes in compressibility and density with the pressure and velocity wave fields, respectively, are computed iteratively. After each update of the contrast sources, an update of the medium parameters is obtained. Total variation as multiplicative regularization is used to minimize blurring in the reconstructed contrasts. The method successfully reconstructed three-dimensional contrast profiles based on changes in both density and compressibility, using synthetic data both with and without 50% white noise. The results were compared with imaging based only on the pressure wave field, where speed of sound profiles were solely based on changes in compressibility. It was found that the results improved significantly by using the full vectorial method when changes in speed of sound depended on changes in both compressibility and density.     

The freezing of hard disks and hyperspheres

A unified density functional theory for the freezing of hard rods, disks, spheres and hyperspheres is presented. The hard rod solid is shown to be unstable with respect to density changes (negative compressibility). The results for the hard disk and the hard sphere transition compare well with the computer simulations.     

Measuring fluid and slurry density and solids concentration non-invasively

Staff at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a highly sensitive, non-invasive, self-calibrating, on-line sensor to measure the density, speed of sound, and attenuation of ultrasound for a liquid or slurry flowing through a pipeline; the approach can also be applied for measurements made in vessels. The sensor transducers are mounted directly upon the stainless steel wall and the pipeline wall becomes part of the measurement system. Multiple reflections within the stainless steel wall are used to determine the acoustic impedance of the liquid, where the acoustic impedance is defined as the product of the density and the speed of sound. The probe becomes self-calibrating because variations in the pulser voltage do not affect the measurements. This feature leads to the stability of the measurements and the instrument requires much less time and effort to calibrate. Further, the calibration remains constant in time, because it does not depend upon the pulser voltage remaining at a given value. By basing the measurement upon multiple reflections, the sensitivity of the measurement is significantly increased. For slurries with wt% solids concentration of 1% or less, high sensitivity is gained by analyzing attenuation measurements obtained from multiple paths through the slurry. For slurries with higher concentrations of solids, sufficient sensitivity is obtained by analyzing data from a simple transmission. Data are presented that show probe performance for each of these cases: very dilute and highly concentrated kaolin clay slurries.     

硝酸溶液的超声研究

用自动化脉冲回波声速测量仪测量了重量百分比浓度范围为20%~99%的硝酸在不同温度时的超声波速度。计算得诸如摩尔声速、声阻抗、绝热压缩系数、分子间自由程以及纯HNO₃液体的声速等参数,另外还推算出超额声速、超额摩尔体积、超额绝热系数、超额分子间自由程等参数。结果显示,随着硝酸浓度的增加,溶液中的离子间相互作用可能存在着先增加尔后又减小的现象。     

Investigation of a pulsed waveguide piezoelectric pressure sensor

The problem of pulsed mechanical action on a stepped acoustic waveguide with a sensitive piezoceramic element in the presence of a perfectly rigid boundary is considered. The dependence of the stress generated by the piezoelectric element on time, measuring circuit parameters, and external perturbing action is obtained analytically. A calibration of the waveguide piezoceramic sensor of the proposed design, which is intended for measuring the pressure of shock waves incident on a solid obstacle, is performed by the thumper method.     

Influence of the thickness of multilayer matching systems on the transfer function of ultrasonic airborne transducer

The effective ultrasonic energy radiation into the air of piezoelectric transducers requires using multilayer matching systems with accurately selected acoustic impedances and the thickness of particular layers. This problem is of particular importance in the case of ultrasonic transducers working at a frequency above 1 MHz. Because the possibilities of choosing material with required acoustic impedance are limited (the counted values cannot always be realised and applied in practice) it is necessary to correct the differences between theoretical values and the possibilities of practical application of given acoustic impedances. Such a correction can be done by manipulating other parameters of matching layers (e.g. by changing their thickness). The efficiency of the energy transmission from the piezoceramic transducer through different layers with different thickness enabling a compensation of non-ideal real values by changing their thickness was computer analysed. The result of this analysis is the conclusion that from the technological point of view a layer with defined thickness is easier and faster to produce than elaboration of a new material with required acoustic parameter.     

Thin-disc piezoceramic ultrasonic motor. Part II: system construction and control

Design and performance evaluation of an ultrasonic motor was discussed in [Wen et al., Thin-disc piezoelectric ultrasonic motor. Part I: design and performance evaluation, Ultrasonics]. Higher precision position control of piezoceramic ultrasonic motor depends on mechanical design and servo control of a very precise and adequate metrology. This paper proposes the design of a driving circuit and controller to deal with non-linearities behavior in the model of piezoceramic-driving ultrasonic motor. The performance of the driver and the effectiveness of the proposed controller are demonstrated by command inputs of sinusoidal and step signals. For comparison purpose, the ultrasonic motor is controlled using two methods: i.e., proportional-integral-derivative (PID) and sliding-mode control (SMC). It was proven that SMC would compensate automatically for unmodeled behaviors such as piezoceramic non-linearities and mechanical stick-slip phenomena. Furthermore, SMC scheme has been successfully applied to position tracking to demonstrate the excellent robust performance in noise rejection.     

Influence of acoustic impedance of multilayer acoustic systems on the transfer function of ultrasonic airborne transducers

In different solutions of ultrasonic transducers radiating acoustic energy into the air there occurs the problem of the proper selection of the acoustic impedance of one or more matching layers. The goal of this work was a computer analysis of the influence of acoustic impedance on the transfer function of piezoceramic transducers equipped with matching layers. Cases of resonance and non-resonance matching impedance in relation to the transfer function and the energy transmission coefficient for solid state-air systems were analysed. With stable thickness of matching layers the required shape of the transfer function can be obtained through proper choice of acoustic impedance were built (e.g. maximal flat function). The proper choice of acoustic impedance requires an elaboration of precise methods of synthesis of matching systems. Using the known matching criteria (Chebyshev's, DeSilets', Souquet's), the transfer function characteristics of transducers equipped with one, two, and three matching layers as well as the optimisation methods of the energy transmission coefficient were presented. The influence of the backside load of the transducer on the shape of transfer function was also analysed. The calculation results of this function for different loads of the transducer backside without and with the different matching layers were presented. The proper load selection allows us to obtain the desired shape of the transfer function, which determines the pulse shape generated by the transducer.     

Surface impedance design with ground corrugation for mitigation of large-calibre gun blast noise

The surface impedance design approach is proposed for mitigating large-calibre gun blast noise. Surrounding the blast noise, we employ a group of concentric trenches with critical depths to dampen the propagation of the acoustic wave. These trenches behave like quarter-wavelength resonators and produce acoustic soft surfaces at their openings. The sound pressure is then mitigated over these soft surfaces by destructive interference and the wave attenuates rapidly along the ground surface. To evaluate the overall acoustic performance of such a design, we develop an efficient numerical solver by treating the geometry as a body of revolution (BOR). The symmetry of the structure in the revolution direction allows the 3D boundary integral equation (BIE) for acoustic wave scattering to be reduced to a 2D integral equation by the use of Fourier series expansions. Numerical experiments show that this model can effectively suppress the acoustic wave propagation horizontally and the reduction can reach about 15 dB for large-calibre gun noise with very low-frequency components.     

Ultrasonic particle concentration in a line-driven cylindrical tube

Acoustic particle manipulation has many potential uses in flow cytometry and microfluidic array applications. Currently, most ultrasonic particle positioning devices utilize a quasi-one-dimensional geometry to set up the positioning field. A transducer fit with a quarter-wave matching layer, locally drives a cavity of width one-half wavelength. Particles within the cavity experience a time-averaged drift force that transports them to a nodal position. Present research investigates an acoustic particle-positioning device where the acoustic excitation is generated by the entire structure, as opposed to a localized transducer. The lowest-order structural modes of a long cylindrical glass tube driven by a piezoceramic with a line contact are tuned, via material properties and aspect ratio, to match resonant modes of the fluid-filled cavity. The cylindrical geometry eliminates the need for accurate alignment of a transducer/reflector system, in contrast to the case of planar or confocal fields. Experiments show that the lower energy density in the cavity, brought about through excitation of the whole cylindrical tube, results in reduced cavitation, convection, and thermal gradients. The effects of excitation and material parameters on concentration quality are theoretically evaluated, using two-dimensional elastodynamic equations describing the fluid-filled cylindrical shell with a line excitation.