Effect of micro-particles on cavitation erosion of Ti6Al4V alloy in sulfuric acid solution

The influences of micro-particles on ultrasonic cavitation erosion of Ti6Al4V alloy in 0.1 M H₂SO₄ solution were investigated using mass loss weight, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and white light interferometer. Mass loss results revealed that the cavitation erosion damage obviously decreased with increasing particle size and mass concentration. Open circuit potential recorded during cavitation erosion shifted to positive direction with the decreased mass loss. Meanwhile, the mass loss sharply decreased with applying a positive potential during the entire ultrasonic cavitation erosion, and the relationship between the open circuit potential and the cavitation erosion resistance was discussed.     

Classification of regimes determining ultrasonic cavitation erosion in solid particle suspensions

Although the factors that influence ultrasonic cavitation erosion in solid particle suspensions have been extensively studied, the role that solid particles play in the cavitation process remains poorly understood. The ultrasonic cavitation erosion of AISI 1045 carbon steel was studied in the presence of monodisperse silica particles (10–100 μm, 0.5–20 vol%) suspended in transformer oil. Based on our results, we propose an overview of the possible influencing mechanisms of particle addition for specific particle sizes and concentrations. Four major regimes, namely a viscosity-enhancing regime (V), a particle-impinging regime (I), a particle-shielding regime (S), and a nuclei-adding regime (A) are identified, and their dependence on suspended particle characteristics is analyzed. The VISA regimes, in essence, reflect the viscous and inertial effects of suspended particles, and the way in which particle–particle interactions and heterogeneous nucleation affect erosion. This regime-based framework provides a better understanding of the dominant factors controlling the erosive wear caused by cavitation in the presence of solid particles, and provides a guide for erosion prediction and prevention.     

Influence of passive potential on the electronic property of the passive film formed on Ti in 0.1 M HCl solution during ultrasonic cavitation

The influence of the applied passive potential on the electronic property of the passive film formed on Ti at different potentials in 0.1 M HCl solution during ultrasonic cavitation, was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) and Mott–Schottky plot. The influence of the applied passive potential on the structure and composition of the passive film was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The results showed that the applied passive potential can obviously affect the electronic property of the passive film formed on Ti during ultrasonic cavitation. The resistance of the passive film increased, and the donor density of the passive film decreased with increasing the potential. The flat band potential moved to positive direction and the band gap of the passive film moved to negative direction with increasing potential. AES and XPS results indicated that the thickness of the passive film increased evidently with applying passive potential. The passive film was mainly composed of the mixture of TiO and TiO₂. While the TiO₂ content increased with increasing the applied passive potential, and the crystallization of the passive film increased with the increased potential.     

The role of passive potential in ultrasonic cavitation erosion of titanium in 1 M HCl solution

The influence of the applied passive potential on the ultrasonic cavitation erosion of Ti specimen in 1 M HCl solution was investigated by mass loss experiment, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) and Mott–Schottky plot. The results showed that Ti was in the passive state within the potential region from −0.3 V_SCE to 1.5 V_SCE under ultrasonic cavitation erosion. The applied passive potential can obviously decrease the mass loss of Ti caused by ultrasonic cavitation erosion in 1 M HCl solution. The resistance of the passive film increased, the flat band potential moved to positive direction, and the donor density of the passive film decreased with increasing the passive potential. Finally, a physical model was provided to explain the experimental results based on energy band and semi-conductive theories.     

超声空化与超声医学

随着超声技术应用广泛而迅速的发展,整整一个世纪来,超声空化成了经久不衰的研究课题,特别近１０年来,超声空化成了多种学科的基础研究热点。本扼要地介绍了起声空化的最新研究进展,以及超声空化与超声医学发展的密切关系。     

Effect of pearlitic morphology with varying fineness on the cavitation erosion behavior of eutectoid rail steel

The present work discusses the effect of the pearlitic morphology with varying fineness on the cavitation erosion behavior of eutectoid rail steel. Cavitation erosion of three different types of the pearlitic steels (furnace-cooled, air-cooled, and forced-air-cooled) consisting of coarse, fine, and very fine microstructures were tested in 3.5% NaCl solution and compared with that of the as-received pearlitic rail steel. The variation in the mean depth of erosion (MDE) and mean depth erosion rate (MDER) with erosion time was analyzed. Furthermore, the cavitation erosion resistance of the as-received, the air-cooled, and the forced-air-cooled was found to be 1.03, 1.51, and 2.14 times better than the furnace-cooled pearlitic steel, respectively. It was concluded that the cavitation erosion resistance of the pearlitic steel increased with the increase in the fineness of the microstructure.     

Numerical 3D flow simulation of ultrasonic horns with attached cavitation structures and assessment of flow aggressiveness and cavitation erosion sensitive wall zones

As a contribution to a better understanding of cavitation erosion mechanisms, a compressible inviscid finite volume flow solver with barotropic homogeneous liquid–vapor mixture cavitation model is applied to ultrasonic horn set-ups with and without stationary specimen, that exhibit attached cavitation at the horn tip. Void collapses and shock waves, which are closely related to cavitation erosion, are resolved. The computational results are compared to hydrophone, shadowgraphy and erosion test data. At the horn tip, vapor volume and topology, subharmonic oscillation frequency as well as the amplitude of propagating pressure waves are in good agreement with experimental data. For the evaluation of flow aggressiveness and the assessment of erosion sensitive wall zones, statistical analyses of wall loads and of the multiplicity of distinct collapses in wall-adjacent flow regions are applied to the horn tip and the stationary specimen. An a posteriori projection of load collectives, i.e. cumulative collapse rate vs. collapse pressure, onto a reference grid eliminates the grid dependency effectively for attached cavitation at the horn tip, whereas a significant grid dependency remains at the stationary specimen. The load collectives show an exponential decrease towards higher collapse pressures. Erosion sensitive wall zones are well predicted for both, horn tip and stationary specimen, and load profiles are in good qualitative agreement with measured topography profiles of eroded duplex stainless steel samples after long-term runs. For the considered amplitude and gap width according to ASTM G32-10 standard, the analysis of load collectives reveals that the distinctive erosive ring shape at the horn tip can be attributed to frequent breakdown and re-development of a small portion of the tip-attached cavity. This partial breakdown of the attached cavity repeats at each driving cycle and is associated with relatively moderate collapse peak pressures, whereas the stationary specimen is rather unfrequently stressed at the end of each subharmonic oscillation cycle by the violent collapse of the complete cavity.     

Damage characteristics and surface description of near-wall materials subjected to ultrasonic cavitation

For the analysis of ultrasonic cavitation erosion on the surface of materials, the ultrasonic cavitation erosion experiments for AlCu4Mg1 and Ti6Al4V were carried out, and the changes of surface topography, surface roughness, and Vickers hardness were explored. Cavitation pits gradually expand and deepen with the increase of experiment time, and Ti6Al4V is more difficult to erode by cavitation than AlCu4Mg1. After experiments, the cavitation damage characteristics such as the single pit, the rainbow ring area, the fisheye pit, and some small pits were observed, which can be considered to be induced by a single micro-jet impact, ablation effect caused by the high temperature, micro-jet impingement with a sharp angle, and multibeam micro-jets coupling impact or negative pressure in the local area produced by micro-jet impact, respectively. The surface roughness and Vickers hardness of the material increase slowly after rapid growth at different points in time as the experiment time increases. With the increase of the ultrasonic amplitude, both of them first increase and then decrease after the ultrasonic amplitude is greater than 10.8 μm. The increases in surface roughness and Vickers hardness tend to decrease as the viscosity coefficient increases. Ultrasonic cavitation can cause submicron surface roughness and increase surface hardness by 20.36%, so it can be used as a surface treatment method.     

超声清洗装置空化噪声谱分析法空化噪声级测量

空化强度是用以衡量液体介质中空化活动的剧烈程度,同时空化效应在超声清洗中起关键作用,因此,测量超声清洗槽中的空化强度便可了解其中空化活动的情况.当发生空化时,液体介质中会产生成分复杂空化噪声,对空化噪声谱进行分析和计算得到空化噪声级,据此可判断空化强度.实验测得结果表明:超声清洗装置内稳态空化分布广泛、均匀,瞬态空化分...     

The cavitation erosion of ultrasonic sonotrode during large-scale metallic casting: Experiment and simulation

Ultrasonic sonotrodes play an essential role in transmitting power ultrasound into the large-scale metallic casting. However, cavitation erosion considerably impairs the in-service performance of ultrasonic sonotrodes, leading to marginal microstructural refinement. In this work, the cavitation erosion behaviour of ultrasonic sonotrodes in large-scale castings was explored using the industry-level experiments of Al alloy cylindrical ingots (i.e. 630 mm in diameter and 6000 mm in length). When introducing power ultrasound, severe cavitation erosion was found to reproducibly occur at some specific positions on ultrasonic sonotrodes. However, there is no cavitation erosion present on the ultrasonic sonotrodes that were not driven by electric generator. Vibratory examination showed cavitation erosion depended on the vibration state of ultrasonic sonotrodes. Moreover, a finite element (FE) model was developed to simulate the evolution and distribution of acoustic pressure in 3-D solidification volume. FE simulation results confirmed that significant dynamic interaction between sonotrodes and melts only happened at some specific positions corresponding to severe cavitation erosion. This work will allow for developing more advanced ultrasonic sonotrodes with better cavitation erosion-resistance, in particular for large-scale castings, from the perspectives of ultrasonic physics and mechanical design.     

超声空化状态对苯酚降解的影响

给出不同空化状态下超声波降解苯酚溶液的实验结果,比较了相应的声压级频谱和合成声强。研究了苯酚溶液的浓度,二阶铁盐,超声辐射时间对苯酚降解率的影响,讨论了不同空化状态下的声压级频谱特征。     

The influence of air content in water on ultrasonic cavitation field

Cavitation is a complex physical phenomenon affected by many factors, one of which is the gas dissolved in the medium. Researchers have given some efforts to the influence of gas content on sonoluminescence or some specific chemical reactions in and around the bubble, but limited work has been reported about the influence on the ultrasonic cavitation field distribution. In this work, the intensity distribution of the ultrasound field in a cleaning tank has been measured with the hydrophone. After analysed and visualised by MATLAB software, it was found that the cavitation intensity distribution in degassed water was much better than that in tap water. And further study proved that degassing process can improve the cavitation effect dramatically both in intensity and scope. Finally, the cavitation fields in mediums with different gas content were measured and the specific influence of air content on cavitation field was discussed.     

Studies of a novel sensor for assessing the spatial distribution of cavitation activity within ultrasonic cleaning vessels

This paper describes investigations of the spatial distribution of cavitation activity generated within an ultrasonic cleaning vessel, undertaken using a novel cavitation sensor concept. The new sensor monitors high frequency acoustic emissions (>1 MHz) generated by micron-sized bubbles driven into acoustic cavitation by the applied acoustic field. Novel design features of the sensor, including its hollow, cylindrical shape, provide the sensor with spatial resolution, enabling it to associate the megahertz acoustic emissions produced by the cavitating bubbles with specific regions of space within the vessel. The performance of the new sensor has been tested using a 40 kHz ultrasonic cleaner employing four transducers and operating at a nominal electrical power of 140 W under controlled conditions. The results demonstrate the ability of the sensors to identify 'hot-spots' and 'cold-spots' in cavitation activity within the vessel, and show good qualitative agreement with an assessment of the spatial distribution of cavitation determined through erosion monitoring of thin sheets of aluminium foil. The implications of the studies for the development of reliable methods of quantifying the performance of cleaning vessels are discussed in detail.     

Sonoluminescence and dynamics of cavitation bubble populations in sulfuric acid

The detailed link of liquid phase sonochemical reactions and bubble dynamics is still not sufficiently known. To further clarify this issue, we image sonoluminescence and bubble oscillations, translations, and shapes in an acoustic cavitation setup at 23 kHz in sulfuric acid with dissolved sodium sulfate and xenon gas saturation. The colour of sonoluminescence varies in a way that emissions from excited non-volatile sodium atoms are prominently observed far from the acoustic horn emitter (“red region”), while such emissions are nearly absent close to the horn tip (“blue region”). High-speed images reveal the dynamics of distinct bubble populations that can partly be linked to the different emission regions. In particular, we see smaller strongly collapsing spherical bubbles within the blue region, while larger bubbles with a liquid jet during collapse dominate the red region. The jetting is induced by the fast bubble translation, which is a consequence of acoustic (Bjerknes) forces in the ultrasonic field. Numerical simulations with a spherical single bubble model reproduce quantitatively the volume oscillations and fast translation of the sodium emitting bubbles. Additionally, their intermittent stopping is explained by multistability in a hysteretic parameter range. The findings confirm the assumption that bubble deformations are responsible for pronounced sodium sonoluminescence. Notably the observed translation induced jetting appears to serve as efficient mixing mechanism of liquid into the heated gas phase of collapsing bubbles, thus potentially promoting liquid phase sonochemistry in general.     

超声空化及其声流结构实验研究*

超声空化及其声流效应在医学、化工和能源等领域得到广泛应用。本文采用高速摄像和粒子图像测速系统分别研究了超声场下的空化形态和声流场结构的时空演化规律。实验研究了50W,100W,200W和250W等四种不同输入功率对18kHz的超声变幅杆附近空化及其声流场的影响。研究结果表明：（1）在变幅杆下端面处观察到由大量空化气泡均匀分布组成的倒置锥形空泡结构,并且锥形空泡结构为稳态流动结构。（2）在超声变幅杆附近产生了两种不同的声流形式,第一种是变幅杆底端的射流型声流,第二种是变幅杆两侧的回旋流。此外,通过研究空泡与声流场中最大速度点之间的空间对应关系,发现声流是因为空泡流动带动而产生的。（3）空间位置和输入功率能显著影响射流型声流的流场结构,但是对回旋流的影响十分微弱。     

超声空化对丙酮激光喇曼光谱的影响

本研究设计了一种可吸入超声的喇曼光谱样品池,对丙酮的激光喇光曼谱的检测表明,超声空化降低了喇曼光谱的强度,我们认为,超声空化减少了激光光路上参与散射的丙酮分子数是光谱强度降低的主要原因。     

Study on a novel omnidirectional ultrasonic cavitation removal system for Microcystis aeruginosa

Microcystis aeruginosa, as a typical alga, produces microcystin with strong liver toxicity, seriously endangering the liver health of human and animals. Inhibiting the bloom of the Microcystis aeruginosa in lakes becomes a significant and meaningful work. Ultrasonic cavitation is currently considered to be the most environmentally friendly and effective method for the removal of Microcystis aeruginosa. However, the commercialized ultrasonic algae removal systems require multi-Langevin transducers to achieve omnidirectional ultrasonic irradiation due to the single irradiation direction of the Langevin transducer, resulting in the complex design and high energy consumption. To achieve a low-cost, simple structure, and high-efficiency algae removal system, a novel omnidirectional ultrasonic cavitation removal system for Microcystis aeruginosa is proposed. The proposed system is major composed of a novel omnidirectional ultrasonic transducer, which generates the omnidirectional ultrasonic irradiation by its shaking-head motion coupled by two orthogonal bending vibration modes. Modal simulation, sound field simulation, and cavitation bubble radius simulation are first carried out to optimize the geometric sizes of the proposed transducer and verify the correctness of the omnidirectional ultrasonic irradiation principle. Then the vibration characteristics of the transducer prototype are measured by vibration tests and impedance tests. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed omnidirectional ultrasonic removal system for Microcystis aeruginosa are evaluated through the algae removal experiments. The experimental results exhibit that the algal cells damaged by ultrasonic irradiation from the proposed system do not have the ability to self-repair. In addition, the algal removal rates reached 55.41% and 72.97% after 30 min of ultrasonic treatment when the corresponding ultrasonic densities are 0.014 W/mL and 0.021 W/mL, respectively. The proposed omnidirectional ultrasonic algae removal system significantly simplifies the configuration and reduces energy consumption, presenting the potential promise of algae removal and environmental protection.     

The influence of semiconducting properties of passive films on the cavitation erosion resistance of a NbN nanoceramic coating

To alleviate the cavitation damage of metallic engineering components in hydrodynamic systems operating in marine environments, a NbN nanoceramic coating was synthesized on to a Ti-6Al-4V substrate via a double cathode glow discharge technique. The microstructure of the coating consisted of a ~13 μm thick deposition layer of a hexagonal δ′-NbN phase and a diffusion layer ~2 μm in thickness composed of face-centered cubic (fcc) B1-NaCl–structured (Ti,Nb)N. The NbN coating not only exhibited higher values of H/E and H²/E than those measured from NbN coatings deposited by other techniques, but also possessed good adhesion to the substrate. The cavitation erosion resistance of the NbN coating in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution was investigated using an ultrasonic cavitation-induced apparatus combined with a range of electrochemical test methods. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements demonstrated that the NbN coated specimens demonstrated both a higher corrosion potential (E_corr) and lower corrosion current density (i_corr) than the uncoated substrate. Mott-Schottky analysis, combined with the point defect model (PDM), revealed that, for a given cavitation time, the donor density (N_D) of the passive film on the NbN coating was reduced by 1 ~ 2 orders of magnitude relative to the uncoated Ti-6Al-4V, and the diffusivity of the point defects (D₀) in the passive film grown on the NbN coating was nearly one order of magnitude lower than that on the uncoated substrate. In order to better understand the experimental observations obtained from Mott-Schottky analysis and double-charge layer capacitance measurements, first-principles density-functional theory was employed to calculate the energy of vacancy formation and the adsorption energy for chloride ions for the passive films present on both the NbN coating and bare Ti-6Al-4V.     

Acoustic resonance for contactless ultrasonic cavitation in alloy melts

Contactless ultrasound is a novel, easily implemented, technique for the Ultrasonic Treatment (UST) of liquid metals. Instead of using a vibrating sonotrode probe inside the melt, which leads to contamination, we consider a high AC frequency electromagnetic coil placed close to the metal free surface. The coil induces a rapidly changing Lorentz force, which in turn excites sound waves. To reach the necessary pressure amplitude for cavitation with the minimum electrical energy use, it was found necessary to achieve acoustic resonance in the liquid volume, by finely tuning the coil AC supply frequency. The appearance of cavitation was then detected experimentally with an externally placed ultrasonic microphone and confirmed by the reduction in grain size of the solidified metal. To predict the appearance of various resonant modes numerically, the exact dimensions of the melt volume, the holding crucible, surrounding structures and their sound properties are required. As cavitation progresses the speed of sound in the melt changes, which in practice means resonance becomes intermittent. Given the complexity of the situation, two competing numerical models are used to compute the soundfield. A high order time-domain method focusing on a particular forcing frequency and a Helmholtz frequency domain method scanning the full frequency range of the power supply. A good agreement is achieved between the two methods and experiments which means the optimal setup for the process can be predicted with some accuracy.