Conference Paper

Investigation of acoustic streaming and cavitation intensity in water as an analogue for liquid metal

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation of the evolution of flow structures and cavitation intensity in water as an analogue for a liquid metal under ultrasonic excitation. Results are presented for 20 kHz high-power ultrasound. The input power ranged from 50% (8.5 μm p-p) to 100% (17 μm p-p). To identify the streaming structures and understand the recirculation flows for different vibrational amplitudes of the sonotrode, particle image velocimetry (PIV) measured the velocity field. Simultaneously, a calibrated cavitometer probe measured acoustic intensity in the fluid. The cavitation intensity away from the acoustic source decreased with increasing input acoustic power, but was relatively constant inside the cavitation zone (irrespective of the input power). PIV measurements showed that the direction of the flow pattern was strongly related to the vibrational amplitude of the sonotrode. These results are compared with the predictions of an acoustic cavitation model. The outcome of the present work will help to determine the efficient optimization of ultrasonic processing of liquid metals that is of increasing technological importance.

Attached files

Authors

Tzanakis, Iakovos
Lebon, G.S. Bruno
Eskin, Dmitry
Hyde, Martin
Grant, Patrick S.

Oxford Brookes departments

Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment\School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Dates

Year of publication: 2018
Date of RADAR deposit: 2019-01-04

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of Investigation of acoustic streaming and cavitation intensity in water as an analogue for liquid metal