Wei Zongsu, Weavers Linda K
Department of Civil Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Department of Civil Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Ultrason Sonochem. 2016 Jul;31:490-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2016.01.036. Epub 2016 Jan 29.
Scaled-up and economically viable sonochemical systems are critical for increased use of ultrasound in environmental and chemical processing applications. In this study, computational simulations and acoustic pressure maps were used to design a larger-scale sono-reactor containing a multi-stepped ultrasonic horn. Simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics showed ultrasonic waves emitted from the horn neck and tip, generating multiple regions of high acoustic pressure. The volume of these regions surrounding the horn neck were larger compared with those below the horn tip. The simulated acoustic field was verified by acoustic pressure contour maps generated from hydrophone measurements in a plexiglass box filled with water. These acoustic pressure contour maps revealed an asymmetric and discrete distribution of acoustic pressure due to acoustic cavitation, wave interaction, and water movement by ultrasonic irradiation. The acoustic pressure contour maps were consistent with simulation results in terms of the effective scale of cavitation zones (∼ 10 cm and <5 cm above and below horn tip, respectively). With the mapped acoustic field and identified cavitation location, a cylindrically-shaped sono-reactor with a conical bottom was designed to evaluate the treatment capacity (∼ 5 L) for the multi-stepped horn using COMSOL simulations. In this study, verification of simulation results with experiments demonstrates that coupling of COMSOL simulations with hydrophone measurements is a simple, effective and reliable scientific method to evaluate reactor designs of ultrasonic systems.
扩大规模且经济可行的声化学系统对于在环境和化学处理应用中更多地使用超声波至关重要。在本研究中，通过计算模拟和声压图来设计一个更大规模的包含多级超声变幅杆的声化学反应器。在COMSOL Multiphysics中的模拟显示，从变幅杆颈部和尖端发射的超声波会产生多个高声压区域。与变幅杆尖端下方的区域相比，围绕变幅杆颈部的这些区域的体积更大。通过在装满水的有机玻璃箱中用水听器测量生成的声压等值线图对模拟声场进行了验证。这些声压等值线图揭示了由于声空化、波相互作用以及超声辐照引起的水运动而导致的声压不对称且离散的分布。就空化区域的有效尺度而言（分别在变幅杆尖端上方约10 cm和下方<5 cm），声压等值线图与模拟结果一致。利用映射的声场和确定的空化位置，设计了一个底部为圆锥形的圆柱形声化学反应器，以使用COMSOL模拟评估多级变幅杆的处理能力（约5 L）。在本研究中，通过实验对模拟结果进行验证表明，将COMSOL模拟与水听器测量相结合是一种评估超声系统反应器设计的简单、有效且可靠的科学方法。
