Standing Wave Ultrasound Water Emulsion Separation
Document Type
Event
Department
Engineering
Abstract
With the amount of water waste being created daily, specifically industrial waste of approximately 20% of the world’s freshwater withdrawal and the average American person uses about 82 gallons of water.. There is a duty to find alternative solutions and methods to reuse the amount being wasted. This project involves applications of high-amplitude, ultrasonic frequency pressure waves in water. In particular using ultrasound one can achieve separation and concentration of secondary-phase components from water. The ability to translate and concentrate these secondary phases is known as acoustophoresis. Acoustophoresis is a low-power, no-pressure-drop, no-clog, solid-state approach to particle removal from fluid dispersions: i.e., it is used to achieve separations that are more typically performed with porous filters, but it has none of the disadvantages of filters. Acoustophoresis is extremely powerful in that it can be used to sort particles of different sizes, density, or compressibility in a single pass through an acoustophoretic cavity. Whereas there is a well-established literature on applications of acoustophoresis in microfluidics, this project will use acoustophoresis for separations in extremely high volumes and in flowing systems with very high flow rates. This has been done for micron-size particles, for which the acoustophoretic force is quite small An acoustophoretic separator is created by using a piezoelectric acoustic transducer and an opposing reflection surface (or a second transducer) to set up a resonant standing wave in the fluid of interest. The ultrasonic standing waves create localized regions of high and low pressure, corresponding to high and low density of the fluid. Secondary phase contaminants are pushed to the standing wave nodes or antinodes depending on their compressibility and density relative to the surrounding fluid. Particles of higher density and compressibility (e.g., bacterial spores) move to the nodes in the standing waves; secondary phases of lower density (such as oils) move to the antinodes. The force exerted on the particles also depends on their size, with larger particles experiencing larger forces. This technology utilizes ultrasonic standing waves to trap secondary particles in a fluid stream. Should this technology function as created, when the exerted force of acoustic radiation force is greater than the effect of both fluid drag and buoyancy force, the particle becomes trapped within the standing wave field. This application can offer multiple outlets to assist in the goal of improving the water wasted and being reused.
Standing Wave Ultrasound Water Emulsion Separation
With the amount of water waste being created daily, specifically industrial waste of approximately 20% of the world’s freshwater withdrawal and the average American person uses about 82 gallons of water.. There is a duty to find alternative solutions and methods to reuse the amount being wasted. This project involves applications of high-amplitude, ultrasonic frequency pressure waves in water. In particular using ultrasound one can achieve separation and concentration of secondary-phase components from water. The ability to translate and concentrate these secondary phases is known as acoustophoresis. Acoustophoresis is a low-power, no-pressure-drop, no-clog, solid-state approach to particle removal from fluid dispersions: i.e., it is used to achieve separations that are more typically performed with porous filters, but it has none of the disadvantages of filters. Acoustophoresis is extremely powerful in that it can be used to sort particles of different sizes, density, or compressibility in a single pass through an acoustophoretic cavity. Whereas there is a well-established literature on applications of acoustophoresis in microfluidics, this project will use acoustophoresis for separations in extremely high volumes and in flowing systems with very high flow rates. This has been done for micron-size particles, for which the acoustophoretic force is quite small An acoustophoretic separator is created by using a piezoelectric acoustic transducer and an opposing reflection surface (or a second transducer) to set up a resonant standing wave in the fluid of interest. The ultrasonic standing waves create localized regions of high and low pressure, corresponding to high and low density of the fluid. Secondary phase contaminants are pushed to the standing wave nodes or antinodes depending on their compressibility and density relative to the surrounding fluid. Particles of higher density and compressibility (e.g., bacterial spores) move to the nodes in the standing waves; secondary phases of lower density (such as oils) move to the antinodes. The force exerted on the particles also depends on their size, with larger particles experiencing larger forces. This technology utilizes ultrasonic standing waves to trap secondary particles in a fluid stream. Should this technology function as created, when the exerted force of acoustic radiation force is greater than the effect of both fluid drag and buoyancy force, the particle becomes trapped within the standing wave field. This application can offer multiple outlets to assist in the goal of improving the water wasted and being reused.
