Misting, Particle Creation and Sizing.
Ultrasonics and Nuclear Fusion.
Quick Links for Ultrasonic Probe Manufacturers (moved 10 Jul 2002).
Other pages are shown on the Ultrasonic Index page.
(25 Oct 05)
On the Ultrasonic Cleaning Page:
ULTRASONIC CLEANING {in process}.
Immersible Transducers.
What's New?
On the ULTRASONICS GLOSSARY page:
ULTRASONICS GLOSSARY {in process}.
ULTRASONICS BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ultrasonic Bibliography Page 1 - Reference Books on Acoustics,
Vibration, and Sound.
Ultrasonic Bibliography Page 2 - Sonochemistry.
Ultrasonic Bibliography Page 3 - Selected Articles.
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: I am writing a book on "High-Intensity Ultrasonic Technology and Applications" (intended for Marcel Dekker's "Mechanical Engineering Series", edited by Profs. Lynn L. Faulkner and S. Bradford Menkes). This book will focus on the practical application of power (high intensity) ultrasonics, the use of ultrasonic energy to change materials. Contributions are welcome.
THE CAVITATION BUBBLE
[image from University of Washington, Applied Physics Laboratory (Lawrence Crum, Ph.D.)
- bubble diameter approximately 1mm]
ULTRASONICS
[Please note that over the many years since this site was begun (30 May 96), I have abandoned the formal academic usage of
"the author" and "your Webmaster" in favor of the more informal first person singular "I" and "me".]
I shall define "ULTRASONICS" as the application of sound at extremely high intensity and high frequency (normally above human hearing, 20kHz - 20,000 cycles per second - and above) to change materials. The term "MEGASONICS" is now being used to describe frequencies of 1,000,000Hz (1,000kHz) and above.
There are other types of "ULTRASOUND", especially those used for Imaging and Sonar, Characterization of Materials and NDE (Non-Destructive Evaluation), pest-control (supposedly), and so forth; these do NOT change materials and are not covered herein. This series of pages is concerned only with changing materials with ultrasonics.
Such change can clean, homogenize, and accelerate both physical and chemical reactions, among many other things.
That is a key phrase worthy of repetition:
Using the keywords, here are just some of the many operations that are commonly performed (or facilitated) using ultrasonics:
PARTIAL LIST OF APPLICATIONS OF ULTRASONIC ENERGY
==================================================
(High-intensity applications, only)
BONDING OPERATIONS:
Welding - Joining - Sewing - Sealing - Insertion - Staking - Soldering
MACHINING OPERATIONS:
Drilling - Grinding - Cutting
FORMING, FORGING, and CASTING OPERATIONS:
Extruding - Spinning - Static and Continuous Casting
CHEMICAL and PHYSICAL OPERATIONS:
Sonochemistry - Reacting (physical and chemical) - Accelerating Reactions - Pollution Abatement - Toxic Waste Treatment - Beneficiation of Ores - Remediation - Particle Handling [dispersion, agglomeration, suspension, column packing, sinters, fine ceramics, electronic insulators (resistors, capacitors), 20% volume reduction] - Disruption/Sonolysis - Homogenization - Emulsification - Dissolution - Degassing - Bubble Fusion
CLEANING OPERATIONS:
Surface Cleaning, Preparation, and Treatment - Enhancement of Surfactancy and Detergency - Vapor Degreasing - Turbidity Measurement
MEDICAL/SURGICAL OPERATIONS:
Phaecoemulsification (cataract removal) - Dental Prophylaxis (scaling - tartar removal) - Lithotriptry (removal of liver or gall stones) - Liposuction - Debridement of Wounds - Surgery - Cautery
MEDICAL/THERAPEUTIC OPERATIONS:
"Diathermy" (deep heating) - Inhalation Therapy - Skin Cancer Treatment
AEROSOL OPERATIONS:
Humidification (lace, flour, Legionella) - Spray Drying - Evaporative Cooling - Carburetion and Combustors
MISCELLANEOUS OPERATIONS:
Levitation, Foaming (sparging) and Defoaming - Destructive and Constructive Testing (erosion, cleaning, accelerated corrosion and reaction) - Forensics and Archaeology [potsherds, bone cleaning, selective erosion (serial number restoration)]
PROCESSING
For a complete novice to technology, go first to A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING (A Non-Technical Explanation of a Complicated Letterhead) and then to A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC CAVITATION (A Non-Technical Explanation of "Cold Boiling").
Those with a smattering of technical knowledge can go to CONDENSED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING (A Layperson's Explanation of a Complex Letterhead).
A word here about the terms "Ultrasonic Processing" vs. "Ultrasonic Liquid Processing" - the former refers to any method of changing materials using ultrasonic (high-frequency acoustical) energy; the latter refers specifically to methods of changing materials using ultrasonic (high-frequency acoustical) energy in a liquid (a liquid to be processed or the parent liquor used to carry solids to be processed). Some processing, such as drying and levitation, can be accomplished in air or other gaseous media. I have denigrated the latter term ("Ultrasonic Liquid Processing") because, while the most common form of ultrasonic processing, it is too limited in scope and too limiting for the imagination.
CLEANING
[see the Ultrasonic Cleaning page for more detail]
ACTIVE TANKS
Cleaning is most commonly accomplished by immersing objects in a tank to which are fasten transducers that energize the walls or bottom of the tank and generate cavitation in the liquid. Shock waves clean surfaces of parts and assemblies by accelerating detergency of cleaning agents in the bath and by mechanically blasting contaminants off the surfaces.
IMMERSIBLE TRANSDUCERS
An immersible transducer is a radiating device sealed in a housing which can be submerged in a liquid bath to energize the liquid to produce cavitation. An immersible transducer placed in a still tank turns that tank into an ultrasonic cleaner. The immersible transducer is, in effect, a standard tank everted (turned inside out) with the radiating surface on the outside and the transducers on the inside.
Other forms of ultrasonic cleaning include Ultrasonic Vapor Degreasing, Surface Wave Technology for cleaning Printed Circuit Boards, and High-intensity Cleaning of Porous Media, Surfaces for NDE, and Deep Holes.
KEYWORDS (Applications) INDEX
Latest list update: 06 Jul 99
(moved from Page 3 on 12 Feb 00)
[for hardware (non-applications), see GLOSSARY, * = added {date}]
- - - • - - -
APPLICATION:
abatement fine particle dispersion
acceleration fluidization (Br. fluidisation)
agglomeration food dehydration
agitation forming
atomization (Br. atomisation) fractionation
beneficiation grinding
biological cell disruption homogenization (Br. homogenisation)
bleaching insertion
blending joining
bonding levitation
catalysis liquids processing
cavitation machining
cell disruption, biological mixing
cleaning nebulization (Br. nebulisation)
compaction particle size reduction
curing pollution abatement
cutting processing
deagglomeration reflowing (hot melt adhesive)
deflocculating scission
degassing separation
degreasing size reduction
dehydration soldering
disaggregation solids processing
disintegration solubilization (Br. solubilisation)
dispersion sonocatalysis
disruption sonochemistry
dissociation sonolysis
dissolution sonoluminescence
drying staking
emulsification streaming
enhancement surface processing (as in cleaning)
erosion surgical
extraction suspension
fatigue testing tissue disruption
filtration enhancement welding (metals, plastics)
- - - • - - -
(this list will NOT be updated -see instead the alphabetical index.
Probe-type Ultrasonic Processing Equipment
Until more illustrative material is added, let the following temporary terminology and visualization guide suffice:
TEXT and IMAGES © S. Berliner, III - 1998/1999 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
{Note that these devices are also known as "sonoprobes" or "sonotrodes" outside the U. S.
and that they look quite similar to equipment used for ultrasonic welding/bonding -
however, the sensing and control systems are drastically different.}
Typical Ultrasonic Processing System
The energy from the house/lab/plant lines (mains) is transformed from 110/220V AC at 60/50Hz to 20KHz (20,000 cycles per second) and controlled in the GENERATOR (or Power Supply), sent to the CONVERTOR (or Transducer) where it is changed into mechanical energy by the TRANSDUCER crystals (if electrostrictive) or TRANSDUCER Stack of laminated nickel shims (if magnetostrictive) and passed to the HORN (or tool), going through one or more amplification stages (STEPS) and ending up at the TIP (which may be integral to the HORN or removable), the end of which is the RADIATING SURFACE. This face radiates the acoustic energy into the fluid (liquid bath or gaseous sample).
Convertor-Stack-Horn Layout
(electrostrictive shown)
[Material on Cup Horns and other specific types of probes moved to
Page 4a 11 Jul 06.]
More about Probe-type Ultrasonic Processing
Equipment and Frequency can be found
on Page 4a.
ULTRASONIC PROCESSING - AL-1C - CONDENSED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING
(A Layperson's Explanation of a Complex Letterhead) {and Business Card!}
(Moved to Ultrasonics page A on 05 Jan 2002).
ULTRASONIC PROCESSING: AL-1P, A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING
(A Non-Technical Explanation of a Complicated Letterhead)
(Moved to Page A on 19 Apr 2001).
AL-1V - "A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC CAVITATION"
(A Non-Technical Explanation of "Cold Boiling")
moved to Ultrasonics Continuation Page 1A on 12 Feb 00).
Quick Links to Major Ultrasonic Probe Manufacturers
For your convenience (and their benefit), I here three of the top manufacturers of ultrasonic probes for changing materials (NOT sensing probes); this list is neither exclusive nor exhaustive but represents firms with which I have dealt closely and which I can wholeheartedly recommend
(moved to Ultrasonics page 4 on 10 Jul 2002).
Brain Storming -
bright ideas, pipe dreams, pie-in-the-sky?
Here is where I will put ideas that I have not tried
or which have not been carried forward
or for which I can not find substantiation in my
capacious memory or voluminous files:
Grain refinement (grain as in crystalization, NOT food grasses)
- I speak to this in a small way under
ultrasonic processing of molten metals, but there is much work that
might be (and may, indeed, have been) done in this area. Gradual
reduction of cavitation in a melt will/should result in far better
grain structure, finer dendritic formation, and smaller grain size.
Similarly, coarse ice formation in water can/should be slowed or
prevented and microcrystalline or amorphous ice result.
In 1989, the idea of achieving "cold" fusion in the collapsing
cavitation bubble popped into my head during the Pons/Fleischman flap
but they did not respond to my suggestion; now (2002) it is under
serious investigation (see Ultrasonics and
Nuclear Fusion).
This is the stuff of dreams - the place of devil's disciplery - seek
and ye shall find - ask away; hey, you never know (what pearls of
wisdom or insight are trapped under all the decaying grey matter)!
However, there is this caveat: ultrasonic processing is a highly
energy-intensive method and should only be considered when standard
means are not effective.
(22 Mar 08)
For more information, please contact S. Berliner, III.
Call for Contributions
For the forthcoming book, "High-Intensity Ultrasonic Technology and Applications", on the application of power (high intensity) ultrasonics, the use of ultrasonic energy to change materials, I solicit input and refer you to the new Continuation Page 1 where details of this request have been moved.
Please note that a far-more detailed explanation of ultrasonic processing, as well as other technical literature, is available at no charge to consultation clients. However, as what I believe to be a public service, I shall be adding more of my monographs on ultrasonics on this site; watch for them in the index (above).
You may wish to visit Continuation Page A, Continuation Page 1, Continuation Page 2, and Continuation Page 3 with more on ultrasonics, as well as the Ultrasonics Cleaning page {in process} and the Ultrasonics Glossary page {also in process}.
Those persons interested in SONOCHEMISTRY might wish to look at
Prof. Kenneth S. Suslick's and Shiga University's Sonochemistry pages.
The author gratefully acknowledges inclusion of these pages
in INTUTE: Science, Engineering and Technology
[formerly EEVL - the Enhanced and Evaluated Virtual Library
The Internet Guide for Engineering, Mathematics and Computing
(previously the Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library)
a service of the Heriot-Watt University funded by the JISC.]
LEGACY
What happens to all this when I DIE or (heaven forfend!) lose interest? See LEGACY.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
To tour the Ultrasonics pages in sequence, the arrows take you from this
first page to pages A, 1, 1A, 2, 3, 4, 4A, 5, 6, and 7, Glossary Page, Cleaning Page,
and Bibliography Pages 1, 2, and 3).
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 1999, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,
2008
- All rights reserved.
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