Multiobjective optimization of an ultrasonic transducer using NIMBUS

The optimal design of an ultrasonic transducer is a multiobjective optimization problem since the final outcome needs to satisfy several conflicting criteria. Simulation tools are often used to avoid expensive and time-consuming experiments, but even simulations may be inefficient and lead to inadequate results if they are based only on trial and error. In this work, the interactive multiobjective optimization method NIMBUS is applied in designing a high-power ultrasonic transducer. The performance of the transducer is simulated with a finite element model, and three design goals are formulated as objective functions to be minimized. To find an appropriate compromise solution, additional preference information is needed from a decision maker, who in our case is an expert in transducer design. A realistic design problem is formulated, and an interactive solution process is described. Our findings demonstrate that interactive multiobjective optimization methods, combined with numerical simulation models, can efficiently help in finding new solution approaches and possibilities as well as new understanding of real-life problems as entirenesses. In this case, the decision maker found a solution that was better with respect to all three objectives than the conventional unoptimized design.     

The development of recent high-power ultrasonic transducers for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology

With the reduction of crude oil throughout the world, enhance oil recovery technology has become a major oil research topics, which can greatly increase the recovery ratio of the crude oil before the dawning of renewable energy era. Near-well ultrasonic processing technology, as one new method, has attracted more attention for Enhanced Oil Recovery due to its low cost, good applicability and no environmental pollution in recent rears. There are two important relevant aspects about Near-well ultrasonic processing technology: (a) how to enhance the oil flow through the rocks into the pumping pool and (b) how to reduce the oil viscosity so that it can be easier to pump. Therefore, how to design a high-power ultrasonic equipment with excellent performance is crucial for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology. In this paper, recent new high-power ultrasonic transducers for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology are summarized. Each field application of them are also given. The purpose of this paper is to provide reference for the further development of Near-well ultrasonic processing technology.With the reduction of crude oil throughout the world, enhance oil recovery technology has become a major oil research topics, which can greatly increase the recovery ratio of the crude oil before the dawning of renewable energy era. Near-well ultrasonic processing technology, as one new method, has attracted more attention for Enhanced Oil Recovery due to its low cost, good applicability and no environmental pollution in recent rears. There are two important relevant aspects about Near-well ultrasonic processing technology: (a) how to enhance the oil flow through the rocks into the pumping pool and (b) how to reduce the oil viscosity so that it can be easier to pump. Therefore, how to design a high-power ultrasonic equipment with excellent performance is crucial for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology. In this paper, recent new high-power ultrasonic transducers for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology are summarized. Each field application of them are also given. The purpose of this paper is to provide reference for the further development of Near-well ultrasonic processing technology     

A pinhole-plate ultrasonic atomizer

A new pinhole-plate ultrasonic atomizer has been proposed and developed. A pinhole-plate having one or more pinholes is joined to a cavity filled with liquid and is vibrated by a circular ring piezoelectric element bonded onto it. The vibrating plate generates ultrasonic waves only in the vicinity of the pinholes to jet and atomize the liquid from them. The atomizer is very simple and compact, and extremely low in power consumption.     

A polyvinylidene fluoride needle hydrophone for ultrasonic applications

A new type of piezoelectric polymer hydrophone for the frequency range above 1 MHz is described, which consists of a needle, coated with a thin layer of polyvinylidene fluoride. The sensitive area is a small polarized zone of the polymeric material around the needle point. Special properties, caused by the constructive design of this ‘needle hydrophone’, are its non-directivity in a wide angular range, and high spatial resolution of the ultrasonic sound field pattern. Construction and performance are compared with other types of piezoelectric polymer hydrophones. Some possible applications are discussed.     

A numerical formulation for nonlinear ultrasonic waves propagation in fluids

A finite-difference algorithm is developed for analysing the nonlinear propagation of pulsed and harmonic ultrasonic waves in fluid media. The time domain model allows simulations from linear to strongly nonlinear plane waves including weak shock. Effects of absorption are included. All the harmonic components are obtained from only one solving process. The evolution of any original signal can be analysed. The nonlinear solution is obtained by the implicit scheme via a fast linear solver. The numerical model is validated by comparison to analytical data. Numerical experiments are presented and commented. The effect of the initial pulse shape on the evolution of the pressure waveform is especially analysed.     

A calculation scheme for the optimum design of ultrasonic transducers

A calculation scheme that establishes the transfer functionof a thickness-mode piezoelectric transducer is described. A computer program enables flexible manipulation of the design. Parameters that can be inserted are the properties of the piezo-material, the quarter-wavelength layer(s), the backing load and the electrical tuning and matching.Optimization criteria such as maximum bandwidth, optimum dynamic range, minimum pulse duration and minimum round-trip insertion loss (or maximum efficiency) are discussed.     

功率超声设备频率振幅自动控制研究

本文根据差动变量器桥式电路补偿电学臂的原理，采用锁相环（PLL）及模拟乘法器等技术，进行功率超声设备频率振幅自动控制，结果表明，这种控制方法具有频率跟踪范围宽，负载知应能力强及系统性能稳定等功效。     

A comparison of two methods for determining ultrasonic intensity for medical transducers

The spatial and temporal average intensity (ISATA) is determined for four diagnostic ultrasound transducers by two methods: (a) direct measurements (beam profiling) with a miniature hydrophone, as described in the AIUM-NEMA standard, and (b) estimating from measurements of total power and assumptions about beam size. The latter method is frequently used by diagnostic ultrasound manufacturers when reporting output levels to users and regulatory agencies. However, due to the conventions for defining beam area, this method actually overestimates the spatial average intensity. For the four transducers tested, the estimated ISATA exceeds the measured ISATA by several hundred percent. The spatial peak, temporal average intensity (ISPTA) was also measured for the four transducers and is less than the estimated ISATA in every case.     

A Teflon pressure-transducer-specimen bond for ultrasonic measurements over a wide temperature range

A major limitation for the application of megahertz ultrasonic techniques to the study of the properties of solids is the problem of finding transducer-specimen bonds useful over a wide temperature range. A Teflon pressure bond has been developed and tested. It appears to overcome most of the problems, and promises to allow for many studies previously more difficult or impracticable.     

A new ultrasonic technique for the measurement of liquid level

A new design of pulse-echo ultrasonic liquid level gauge is described in which the ultrasonic pulse (here a Rayleigh or a Lamb wave) travels down a metal bar or strip towards the liquid surface, where, through a double mode-conversion process and a special reflecting structure, a strong echo is generated which travels back up the bar to the receiving transducer.The geometry of the special reflecting structure is outlined, and it is shown how this affects the basic accuracy of measurement. Inaccuracies arising from other effects like temperature variation, viscosity and poor signal-to-noise ratio are also discussed. Some mechanical variants, like using the wall of the tank in place of the metal bar carrying the ultrasonic wave and the use of corner reflectors as part of the reflecting structure, are also considered.A note in the Appendix briefly describes one method which has been used successfully for the generation of Rayleigh and Lamb waves.     

A new method for the demodulation of ultrasonic signals for cross-correlation flowmeters

Cross-correlation flowmeters using clamp-on ultrasonic transducers are particularly attractive for use in hostile or abrasive fluids. However, a phase difference is frequently found to exist between the envelopes of the received ultrasonic signals, which causes the correlation peak to become degraded, distorted, or even inverted. In this paper, an explanation for the phase errors is offered, and a new demodulation method, which eliminates these errors, is described.     

Automatic system for dynamic control of resonance in high power and high Q ultrasonic transducers

This paper describes the fundamentals, design criteria and electronic structure of a new frequency control system to keep permanently at resonance high Q ultrasonic transducers whose mechanical resonance band may vary within wide limits under normal operating conditions. The procedure developed is based on keeping constant at its zero value the phase of the motional admittance of the transducer by automatically and instantaneously adjusting the frequency of the driving signal provided by a voltage controlled oscillator. The characteristics of this system, especially the fact that the transducer is not an integral part of the feed-back loop of the oscillatory circuit and the frequency tracking mechanism does not depend directly on the magnitude of the motional variables of the transducer, offer some advantages in construction and performance with respect to the conventional motional positive feed-back systems.     

A simple device for checking the acoustic beam of ultrasonic therapy equipment

Ultrasound of time average acoustic intensities between 0.5 and 3 W cm⁻² is widely used in physiotherapy. A simple device for semiquantitative checking of output power and beam shape has been designed. The beam tester consists of an absorbing plate and a sheath liquid crystal thermometer for temperature distribution display.¹ The ultrasonic beam is fed to the absorber through a simple water tank.     

Piezoelectric multilayer transducers for ultrasonic pulse compression

This paper describes piezoelectric multilayer transducers for application in ultrasonic pulse compression systems. The transducers are constructed in such a way as to produce binary pulse sequences, in particular Barker-coded sequences. This is achieved by the polarization pattern of the active layers. Pulse compression is effected without any electronic circuitry by using a receiver transducer with a pattern corresponding to that of the transmitter.     

基于直接数字合成技术超声电源控制器的研究

功率超声技术在国民经济各部门的日益广泛应用,越来越需要一种通用型智能化大功率超声电源。控制器是大功率超声电源的核心,它应具有根据大功率超声应用的具体情况自动跟踪振动系统的谐振频率和进行功率大小自动控制的功能。本文以现场可编程门阵列器件(FPGA)作为控制器核心,采用直接数字频率合成技术控制信号输出频率,用改变输出信号占空比的方式实现功率调整,用振动系统的电流和电压相位差信息自动跟踪频率。仿真结果表明,该控制器不仅对信号频率稳定性高,便于功率调整,而且易于实现频率自动跟踪。     

Optimization of ultrasonic transducers

The so-called KLM-model for ultrasonic transducers is employed to optimize transducer design. Some new performance characteristics are defined which change monotonically with design parameters. These characteristics are based on the area of the envelope of the echo waveform produced by the transducer and of the corresponding amplitude spectrum. The efficiency of the transducer is defined by the round trip energy factor. The performance characteristics are used in a composite performance measure, which is then employed as a criterion in the optimization procedure. Two transducers are investigated: for medical imaging purposes and for spectral analysis of clinical echograms. The influence of electrical matching, backing impedance, matching layer impedance, bond line thickness and series induction on the optimized transducers is investigated.     

Polymerization resulting from ultrasonic cavitation

Polymerization due to ultrasonically induced cavitation is reported for a number of compounds: bromobenzene, styrene, isoprene, and methyl methacrylate. The molecular weight of the polymethylmethacrylate produced through ultrasound is considerably lower than that due to normal aging. The bromobenzene and styrene products are dark friable solids. The isoprene product has an ultra-violet absorption suggesting a conjugated system of about ten carbon-carbon bonds in length.     

A stochastic discrete model of tissue and its ultrasonic backscattering coefficient

TheprojectissupportedbyNationalNaturalScienceFoundationofChina.I.IntroductionU1trasonicpropagationandscatteringinthebiologica1softtissuesisabasicprob-lemofbiomedica1u1trasonics,andu1trasonicbackscatteringfromthetissucsproduccs..importantinformationfortissuecharacterizationaswe11asfortissueimagind'.2].Tissuemodellingisfundamentalfortheanalysisofultrasonicbackscattering.Vari-ousmode1shavebeensuggestedwithapartialsuccess.Sofar,therearetwomajortypesofmodc1s,theinhomogeneouscontinuummode1andthed…     

Gas bubble fragmentation in an ultrasonic field

A model system consisting of a thin layer of vacuum-deposited metallic aluminium on a glass microscope slide was developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of cavitational activity (occurring within the cooling water supply of a dental ultrasonic descaler operating at 25 kHz) in the removal of particulate matter from solid surfaces. The pattern of particulate matter removal using this model system demonstrated both the mechanism of bubble activity and the erosive nature of microbubbles.Non-resonant bubbles were formed by surface wave activity and adhered to the surface of the slide. There was some removal of the aluminium metal at the periphery of the bubble (probably by a microstreaming mechanism) giving a ‘ghost’ outline. The majority of aluminium removal was caused by numerous microbubbles of non-resonant sizes (typically 1 to 2 μm diameter) formed by surface wave induced fragmentation of the parent bubble.The damaging and erosive effects of transient cavitational activity appear to be the result of sub-resonant sized microbubble formation from larger parent bubbles.