Liquid jet directionality and droplet behavior during emulsification of two liquids due to acoustic cavitation

The present study numerically investigates liquid-jet characteristics of acoustic cavitation during emulsification in water/gallium/air and water/silicone oil/air systems. It is found that a high-speed liquid jet is generated when acoustic cavitation occurs near a minute droplet of one liquid in another. The velocity of liquid jet significantly depends on the ultrasonic pressure monotonically increasing as the pressure amplitude increases. Also, the initial distance between cavitation bubble and liquid droplet affects the jet velocity significantly. The results revealed that the velocity takes maximum values when the initial distance between the droplet and cavitation bubble is moderate. Surprisingly, the liquid jet direction was found to depend on the droplet properties. Specifically, the direction of liquid jet is toward the droplet in the case of water/gallium/air system, and vice versa the jet is directed from the droplet in the case of water/silicone oil/air system. The jet directionality can be explained by location of the high-pressure spot generated during the bubble contraction.     

Ultrasonic cavitation at liquid/solid interface in a thin Ga–In liquid layer with free surface

Cavitation in thin layer of liquid metal has potential applications in chemical reaction, soldering, extraction, and therapeutic equipment. In this work, the cavitation characteristics and acoustic pressure of a thin liquid Ga–In alloy were studied by high speed photography, numerical simulation, and bubble dynamics calculation. A self-made ultrasonic system with a TC4 sonotrode, was operated at a frequency of 20 kHz and a max output power of 1000 W during the cavitation recording experiment. The pressure field characteristic inside the thin liquid layer and its influence on the intensity, types, dimensions, and life cycles of cavitation bubbles and on the cavitation evolution process against experimental parameters were systematically studied. The results showed that acoustic pressure inside the thin liquid layer presented alternating positive and negative characteristics within 1 acoustic period (T). Cavitation bubbles nucleated and grew during the negative-pressure stage and shrank and collapsed during the positive-pressure stage. A high bubble growth speed of 16.8 m/s was obtained and evidenced by bubble dynamics calculation. The maximum absolute pressure was obtained at the bottom of the thin liquid layer and resulted in the strongest cavitation. Cavitation was divided into violent and weak stages. The violent cavitation stage lasted several hundreds of acoustic periods and had higher bubble intensity than the weak cavitation stage. Cavitation cloud preferentially appeared during the violent cavitation stage and had a life of several acoustic periods. Tiny cavitation bubbles with life cycles shorter than 1 T dominated the cavitation field. High cavitation intensities were observed at high ultrasonication power and when Q235B alloy was used because such conditions lead to high amplitudes on the substrate and further high acoustic pressure inside the liquid.     

Memory effect and redistribution of cavitation nuclei in a thin liquid layer

Temporal evolution and spatial distribution of acoustic cavitation structures in a thin liquid layer were investigated experimentally with high-speed photography. The inception and disappearance processes of cavitation bubble cloud revealed that the metastable cavitaton structures formed in the thin liquid layer caused a long-term “memory effect”. A factor which weakens the memory effect was identified. The distribution of cavitation nuclei was investigated by changing the temporal decay of the memory effect.     

Spatial-temporal dynamics of cavitation bubble clouds in 1.2 MHz focused ultrasound field

Cavitation bubbles have been recognized as being essential to many applications of ultrasound. Temporal evolution and spatial distribution of cavitation bubble clouds induced by a focused ultrasound transducer of 1.2 MHz center frequency are investigated by high-speed photography. It is revealed that at a total acoustic power of 72 W the cavitation bubble cloud first emerges in the focal region where cavitation bubbles are observed to generate, grow, merge and collapse during the initial 600 μs. The bubble cloud then grows upward to the post-focal region, and finally becomes visible in the pre-focal region. The structure of the final bubble cloud is characterized by regional distribution of cavitation bubbles in the ultrasound field. The cavitation bubble cloud structure remains stable when the acoustic power is increased from 25 W to 107 W, but it changes to a more violent form when the acoustic power is further increased to 175 W.     

Sonoprocessing of wetting of SiC by liquid Al: A thermodynamic and kinetic study

The sonoprocessing of droplet spreading during the wetting process of molten aluminum droplets on SiC ceramic substrates at 700 °C is investigated in this paper. When wetting is assisted by a 20 kHz frequency ultrasonic field, the wettability of liquid metal gets enhanced, which has been determined by the variations in thermodynamic energy and wetting kinetics. Wetting kinetic characteristics are divided into two stages according to pinning and depinning states of substrate/droplet contact lines. The droplet is static when the contact line is pinning, while it is forced to move when the contact line is depinning. When analyzing the pinning stage, high-speed photography reveals the evidence of oxide films being rapidly crushed outside the aluminum droplet. In this work, atomic models of spherical Al core being wrapped by alumina shell are tentatively built, whose dioxide microstructures are being transformed from face-centered cubic into liquid at the atomic scale. At the same time, the wetting experiment reveals that the oxide films show changes in the period of sonoprocessing from 3rd to 5th second.During the ultrasonic spreading behavior in the late stage, there is a trend of evident expansion of the base contact area. The entire ultrasonic process lasts for no longer than 10 s. With the aid of ultrasonic sinusoidal waves, the wettability of metal Al gets a rapid improvement. Both molecular dynamic (MD) investigations and the experiments results reveal that the precursor film phenomenon is never found unless wetting is assisted by ultrasonic treatments. However, the precursor film appears near the triple line after using ultrasonics in the droplet wetting process, whose formation is driven by ultrasonic oscillations. Due to the precursor film, the ultrasonic wetting contact angle is lower than the non-ultrasonic contact angle. In addition, the time-variant effective ultrasonic energy has been quantitatively evaluated. The numerical expressions of thermodynamic variables are well verified by former ultrasonic spreading test results, which altogether provide an intrinsic explanation of the fast-decreasing contact angle of Al/SiC.     

High-speed imaging of ultrasonic emulsification using a water-gallium system

Aiming at elucidating ultrasonic emulsification mechanisms, the interaction between a single or multiple acoustic cavitation bubbles and gallium droplet interface was investigated using an high-speed imaging technique. To our best knowledge, the moment of emulsification and formation of fine droplets during ultrasound irradiation were observed for the first time. It was found that the detachment of fine gallium droplets occurs from the water-gallium interface during collapse of big cavitation bubbles. The results suggest that the maximum size of cavitation bubble before collapsing is of prime importance for emulsification phenomena. Previous numerical simulation revealed that the collapse of big cavitation bubble is followed by generation of high-velocity liquid jet directed toward the water-gallium interface. Such a jet is assumed to be the prime cause of liquid emulsification. The distance between cavitation bubbles and water-gallium interface was found to slightly affect the emulsification onset. The droplet fragmentation conditions are also discussed in terms of the balance between (1) interfacial and kinetic energies and (2) dynamic and Laplace pressure during droplet formation.     

High-speed imaging of ultrasound driven cavitation bubbles in blind and through holes

The interest in application of ultrasonic cavitation for cleaning and surface treatment processes has increased greatly in the last decades. However, not much is known about the behavior of cavitation bubbles inside the microstructural features of the solid substrates. Here we report on an experimental study on dynamics of acoustically driven (38.5 kHz) cavitation bubbles inside the blind and through holes of PMMA plates by using high-speed imaging. Various diameters of blind (150, 200, 250 and 1000 µm) and through holes (200 and 1000 µm) were investigated. Gas bubbles are usually trapped in the holes during substrate immersion in the liquid thus preventing their complete wetting. We demonstrate that trapped gas can be successfully removed from the holes under ultrasound agitation. Besides the primary Bjerknes force and acoustic streaming, the shape oscillations of the trapped gas bubble seem to be a driving force for bubble removal out of the holes. We further discuss the bubble dynamics inside microholes for water and Cu²⁺ salt solution. It is found that the hole diameter and partly the type of liquid media influences the number, size and dynamics of the cavitation bubbles. The experiments also showed that a large amount of the liquid volume inside the holes can be displaced within one acoustic cycle by the expansion of the cavitation bubbles. This confirmed that ultrasound is a very effective tool to intensify liquid exchange processes, and it might significantly improve micro mixing in small structures. The investigation of the effect of ultrasound power on the bubble density distribution revealed the possibility to control the cavitation bubble distribution inside the microholes. At a high ultrasound power (31.5 W) we observed the highest bubble density at the hole entrances, while reducing the ultrasound power by a factor of ten shifted the bubble locations to the inner end of the blind holes or to the middle of the through holes.     

声-流耦合空化场观测与量化表征探索*

该文利用搭建的高速摄影和空化噪声同步观测的声-流耦合空化实验平台,观察分析了声-流耦合场中空化云的演化规律及相应的空化噪声特征。通过引入空化状态变量,给出了空化强度的一种新的明确表述,并提出了一种基于高速摄影图像分析来测量和表征空化状态变量及空化强度的方法。利用该方法进一步对声-流耦合空化时间演化周期性和空间强度分布进行了定量计算。结果表明,声-流耦合空化强度和作用范围相比单独声空化和单独水力空化有显著的提升。     

Mechanism and dynamics of hydrodynamic-acoustic cavitation (HAC)

Bubble clusters in hydrodynamic cavitation, acoustic cavitation and hydrodynamic-acoustic cavitation (HAC) are investigated via high-speed photography. By introducing a cavitation state variable, a method for cavitation characterization is proposed. The periodic characteristics and intensity distributions of hydrodynamic cavitation, acoustic cavitation and HAC are quantitatively analyzed using this method. It is found that the range of HAC is evidently widened and the strength of HAC is significantly enhanced compared with hydrodynamic cavitation or acoustic cavitation. Furthermore, we developed a preliminary physical model describing the dynamics of a cavitation bubble in HAC and proposed a mechanism to explain the enhancement of the intensity in HAC.     

声场中水力空化泡的动力学特性

以水为工作介质,考虑了液体黏性、表面张力、可压缩性及湍流作用等情况,对文丘里管反应器中空化泡在声场作用下的动力学行为特性进行了数值研究.分析了超声波频率、声压及喉径比对空化泡运动特性以及空化泡崩溃时所形成泡温以及压力脉冲的影响.结果表明,超声将水力空化泡运动调制成稳态空化,有利于增强空化效果. 关键词： 超声波 水力空化 湍流 气泡动力学     

声驻波场中空化泡的动力学特性

以水为工作介质, 考虑了液体的可压缩性, 研究了驻波声场中空化泡的运动特性, 模拟了驻波场中各位置处空化泡的运动状态以及相关参数对各位置处空化泡在主Bjerknes力作用下运动方向的影响. 结果表明: 驻波声场中, 空化泡的运动状态分为三个区域, 即在声压波腹附近空化泡做稳态空化, 在偏离波腹处空化泡做瞬态空化, 在声压波节附近, 空化泡在主Bjerknes 力作用下, 一直向声压波节处移动, 显示不发生空化现象; 驻波场中声压幅值增加有利于空化的发生, 但声压幅值增加到一定上限时, 压力波腹区域将排斥空化泡, 并驱赶空化泡向压力波节移动, 不利于空化现象的发生; 当声频率小于初始空化泡的共振频率时, 声频率越高, 由于主Bjerknes 力的作用将有更多的空化泡向声压波节移动, 不利于空化的发生, 尤其是驻波场液面的高度不应是声波波长的1/4; 当声频率一定时, 空化泡初始半径越大越有利于空化现象的发生, 但当空化泡的初始半径超过声频率的共振半径时, 由于主Bjerknes力的作用将有更多的空化泡向声压波节移动, 不利于空化的发生.     

Investigations into wetting and spreading behaviors of impacting metal droplet under ultrasonic vibration control

Ultrasonic-assisted metal droplet deposition (UAMDD) is currently considered a promising technology in droplet-based 3D printing due to its capability to change the wetting and spreading behaviors at the droplet-substrate interface. However, the involved contact dynamics during impacting droplet deposition, particularly the complex physical interaction and metallurgical reaction of induced wetting-spreading-solidification by the external energy, remain unclear to date, which hinders the quantitative prediction and regulation of the microstructures and bonding property of the UAMDD bumps. Here, the wettability of the impacting metal droplet ejected by a piezoelectric micro-jet device (PMJD) on non-wetting and wetting ultrasonic vibration substrates is studied, and the corresponding spreading diameter, contact angle, and bonding strength are also discussed. For the non-wetting substrate, the wettability of the droplet can be significantly increased due to the extrusion of the vibration substrate and the momentum transfer layer at the droplet-substrate interface. And the wettability of the droplet on a wetting substrate is increased at a lower vibration amplitude, which is driven by the momentum transfer layer and the capillary waves at the liquid–vapor interface. Moreover, the effects of the ultrasonic amplitude on the droplet spreading are studied under the resonant frequency of 18.2–18.4 kHz. Compared to deposit droplets on a static substrate, such UAMDD has 31% and 2.1% increments in the spreading diameters for the non-wetting and wetting systems, and the corresponding adhesion tangential forces are increased by 3.85 and 5.59 times.     

固体表面液滴铺展与润湿接触线的移动分析

液滴在固体表面上的铺展行为与润湿特性对许多工业生产过程的研究具有重要意义.根据液滴在光滑表面上的受力情况,建立了液滴平壁铺展的动力学模型.应用润滑近似方法和二维Navier-Stokes方程,建立了液滴沿理想表面铺展的动量和连续性方程.根据建立的方程,应用数值解法求解并详细分析了液滴在铺展过程中膜厚、接触线铺展半径以及铺展速度随时间的变化关系.研究结果表明:液滴的铺展过程可分为扩展和收缩两个阶段,铺展过程伴随着表面能、动能以及各种势能的相互转化,液滴最终的铺展半径大小由固体基面固有的润湿特性所决定;液滴在铺展过程中出现的"坍塌效应"与弯曲液面处的Laplace压力差有关;铺展半径随时间变化的标定律近似满足"1/7"次方标度律.     

声场中双空化泡的运动特性

空化泡的运动特性是声场作用下的动力学行为,受空化泡初始半径,声压幅值,驱动声压频率,液体特性等众多因素的影响,是个复杂工程。本文从双空化泡运动方程出发,考虑到液体粘滞系数、空化泡辐射阻尼项的影响,研究了不同初始半径、驱动声压频率、驱动声压幅值、液体粘滞系数下空化泡泡壁的运动情况,研究结果表明不同初始半径、外界驱动声压频率、驱动声压幅值、液体粘滞系数均会对空化泡的膨胀比和空化泡的溃灭时间有一定影响。     

High-speed photography of transient excitation

Transient excitation can cause the unstable growth and collapse of bubble nuclei, as well as enhancing the stable cavitation of larger bubbles. These unstable collapses have been photographed at 8000 f.p.s., the resulting pictures agreeing well with predicted numerical solutions. These cavities, unlike those normally studied with high-speed photography, are generated by purely acoustic methods, and so the events are as would occur during in situ acoustic cavitation.     

球状泡群内气泡的耦合振动

振动气泡形成辐射场影响其他气泡的运动, 故多气泡体系中气泡处于耦合振动状态. 本文在气泡群振动模型的基础上, 考虑气泡间耦合振动的影响, 得到了均匀球状泡群内振动气泡的动力学方程, 以此为基础分析了气泡的非线性声响应特征. 气泡间的耦合振动增加了系统对每个气泡的约束, 降低了气泡的自然共振频率, 增强了气泡的非线性声响应. 随着气泡数密度的增加, 振动气泡受到的抑制增强; 增加液体静压力同样可抑制泡群内气泡的振动, 且存在静压力敏感区(1–2 atm, 1 atm=1.01325×10⁵ Pa); 驱动声波对气泡振动影响很大, 随着声波频率的增加, 能够形成空化影响的气泡尺度范围变窄. 在同样的声条件、泡群尺寸以及气泡内外环境下, 初始半径小于5 μm 的气泡具有较强的声响应. 气泡耦合振动会削弱单个气泡的空化影响, 但可延长多气泡系统空化泡崩溃发生的时间间隔和增大作用范围, 整体空化效应增强.     

Experimental investigation on the effects of the standoff distance and the initial radius on the dynamics of a single bubble near a rigid wall in an ultrasonic field

Bubble behaviors near a boundary in an ultrasonic field are the fundamental forms of acoustic cavitation and of substantial importance in various applications, such as industry cleaning, chemical engineering and food processing. The effects of two important factors that strongly affect the dynamics of a single acoustic cavitation bubble, namely, the initial bubble radius and the standoff distance, were investigated in this work. The temporal evolution of the bubble was recorded using high speed microphotography. Meanwhile, the time of bubble collapse and the characteristics of the liquid jets were analyzed. The results demonstrate that the intensity of the acoustic cavitation, which is characterized by the time of bubble collapse and the liquid jet speed, reaches the optimum level under suitable values of the initial bubble radius and the normalized standoff distance. As the initial bubble radius and the normalized standoff distance increase or decrease from the optimal values, the time of the bubble collapse increases, and the first liquid jet’s speed decreases substantially, whereas the speeds of the second and third liquid jets exhibit no substantial changes. These results on bubble dynamics in an ultrasonic field are important for identifying or correcting the mechanisms of acoustic cavitation and for facilitating its optimization and application.     

An equivalent method of jet impact loading from collapsing near-wall acoustic bubbles: A preliminary study

Cavitation damage is a micro, high-speed, multi-phase complex phenomenon caused by the near-wall bubble group collapse. The current numerical simulation method of cavitation mainly focuses on the collapse impact of a single cavitation bubble. The large-scale simulation of the cavitation bubble group collapse is difficult to perform and has not been studied, to the best of our knowledge. In this study, the equivalent model of impact loading of acoustic bubble collapse micro-jets is proposed to study the cavitation erosion damage of materials. Based on the theory of the micro-jet and the water hammer effect of the liquid–solid impact, an equivalent model of impact loading of a single acoustic bubble collapse micro-jet is established under the principle of deformation equivalence. Since the acoustic bubbles can be considered uniformly distributed in a small enough area, an equivalent model of impact loading of multiple acoustic bubble collapse micro-jets in a micro-segment can be derived based on the equivalent results of impact loading of a single acoustic bubble collapse micro-jet. In fact, the equivalent methods of cavitation damage loading for single and multiple near-wall acoustic bubble collapse micro-jets are formed. The verification results show the law of cavitation deformation of concrete using equivalent loading is consistent with that of a micro-jet simulation, and the average relative errors and the mean square errors are insignificant. The equivalent method of impact loading proposed in this paper has high accuracy and can greatly improve the calculation efficiency, which provides technical support for numerical simulation of concrete cavitation.     

单液滴撞击倾斜液膜飞溅过程的耦合Level Set-VOF模拟

采用耦合水平集--体积分数法(CLSVOF)对液滴撞击倾斜表面液膜后液膜的形态演化及飞溅过程进行数值模拟, 并对液滴撞击液膜过程中形成的空气卷吸现象进行研究并探讨了撞击角对此的影响, 分析了液滴撞击后液体内部的压力和速度分布, 对液滴撞击倾斜表面液膜的飞溅过程进行讨论, 并与实验结果进行了对比, 验证了CLSVOF方法研究液滴撞击倾斜液膜的可行性. 结果表明, 液滴撞击倾斜液膜时前后两部分飞溅现象产生的机理不同, 前半部分飞溅是由于压差引起的颈部射流, 而后半部分则是由液膜径向流动产生的飞溅现象. 随着撞击角的增大, 空气卷吸气泡数量减少.     

Effects of surface tension on the dynamics of a single micro bubble near a rigid wall in an ultrasonic field

Acoustic cavitation is a very important hydrodynamic phenomenon, and is often implicated in a myriad of industrial, medical, and daily living applications. In these applications, the effect mechanism of liquid surface tension on improving the efficiency of acoustic cavitation is a crucial concern for researchers. In this study, the effects of liquid surface tension on the dynamics of an ultrasonic driven bubble near a rigid wall, which could be the main mechanism of efficiency improvement in the applications of acoustic cavitation, were investigated at the microscale level. A synchronous high-speed microscopic imaging method was used to clearly record the temporary evolution of single acoustic cavitation bubble in the liquids with different surface tension. Meanwhile, the bubble dynamic characteristics, such as the position and time of bubble collapse, the size and stability of the bubbles, the speed of bubble boundaries and the micro-jets, were analyzed and compared. In the case of the single bubbles near a rigid wall, it was found that low surface tension reduces the stability of the bubbles in the liquid medium. Meanwhile, the bubbles collapse earlier and farther from the rigid wall in the liquids with lower surface tension. In addition, the surface tension has no significant influence on the speed of the first micro-jet, but it can substantially increase the speed of second and the third micro-jets after the first collapse of the bubble. These effects of liquid surface tension on the bubble dynamics can explain the mechanism of surfactants in numerous fields of acoustic cavitation for facilitating its optimization and application.