NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN HIGH-POWER ULTRASONIC

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
J. A. Gallego-Juarez
Instituto de Acustica, CSIC, Serrano, 144,Ultrasonics Dpt., 28006 Madrid, Spain

Abstract- High-intensity ultrasonics in multiphase media such as gases or liquids with

suspended particles, drops, or bubbles,
represents a promising field of application
which has not been sufficiently exploited. This
paper deals with new types of high-power
ultrasonic transducers for use in fluids and
their application to different industrial
applications such as particle-removal from
emissions, defoaming, and cleaning. Promising
results are obtained.

INTRODUCTION
Applications
of
high-intensity
ultrasonics are those wherein the ultrasonic
energy is used for producing permanent effects
in the treated medium. These effects can be
attributed to various mechanisms, the most
important of which are: radiation pressure,
heat, streaming, cavitation, agitation, interface
instabilities and friction, difhsion and
mechanical rupture. These mechanisms are
involved in a wide range of applications, such
as machining, welding, metal forming, powder
densification, etc, in solids; cleaning, particle
agglomeration and flocculation, liquid
atomization,
defoaming,
drying
and
dewatering, degassing, etc., in fluids.
A few of these processes have been
introduced in industry, but a greater number
still remain at the laboratory stage. The
development of these processes into industrial
1051-0117/94/0000-1343$4.00 C 1994 IEEE

applications requires to pass over many

different steps and the final success depends
upon commercial and technical factors. In fact,
the industrial acceptability of a new
technology depends in a first step upon its
capability for solving a real technical problem.
Design and operational simplicity, efficiency,
low energy consumption and environmental
impact are other factors which have a notable
influence to promote or to hinder large-scale
applications.
High intensity ultrasound in fluids
(specially in gases) and in multiphase media
(particle/droplet-gas, particle/droplet/bubbleliquid) represents a notable example of a field
of application which has not been sufficiently
exploited. This is probably because of the
problems related to the generation of
ultrasonic energy in fluids. Particularly, the
gaseous media present a low specific acoustic
impedance and a high acoustic absorption.
Therefore, in order to obtain an eficient
transmission of energy, it is necessary to
achieve a good impedance matching between
the transducer and the medium, large
amplitude of vibration and high-directional or
focused beams. In addition, for large-scale
industrial applications, high power capacity
and extensive radiating area would be required
in the transducers. At present, most highpower commercial transducers are based on
the classical sandwich transducer [ 11 which
has many limitations to cover the abovementioned requirements. Therefore, new
1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM - 1343

transducer technology is needed where the

main points to be considered for successfbl
applications are the increase in power and
efficiency, the enlargement of the working
area and the improvement of design to reach,
as much as possible, a uniform distribution of
vibration amplitude.
In the last years, a new type of sonic
and ultrasonic power generator [2] which is
based on the stepped-plate piezoelectric
transducer for use in fluids and in multiphase
media [3] [4] has been developed. These novel
generators, which implement high power
capacity, efficiency and directivity, have
opened up renewed possibilities for industrial
applications. This paper presents the structure
and performance of these generators and
describes the R&D efforts in applying this new
technology to various industrial problems.
THE STEPPED PLATE POWER
GENERATOR
The new sonic/ultrasonic power
generator is constituted by a stepped-plate
transducer and an electronic unit for driving
the transducer. The structure of the transducer
is shown in Figure 1. It consists essentially of

an extensive circular plate of special shape

driven at its center by a piezoelectrically
activated vibrator. The vibrator itself consists
of a piezoelectric element of transduction in a
sandwich configuration and a solid horn,
which acts as a vibration amplifier. The
longitudinal vibration, generated by the
transducer element and amplified by the
mechanical amplifier, drives the radiating plate
which vibrates flexurally in one of its
axisymmetrical modes. The extensive surface
of the plate increases the radiation resistance
and offers the vibrating system good
impedance matching with the medium. The
elements of the transducer are calculated to be
resonant at the working frequency.
The particular type of plate, which is
the radiating element of the transducer, allows
one, because of its special shape, to obtain a
directivity pattern equivalent to that of the
theoretical piston of the same radius. A flat
plate radiator vibrating in its flexural modes
presents in general a poor directivity due to
phase cancellation. Nevertheless, if the surface
elements, vibrating in counterphase on the two
sides of the nodal circles, are alternately
shifted along the acoustic axis direction by a
quantity equal to half a wavelength of the
sound in the propagation medium, the
radiation produced will be in phase across the
whole beam (diagrams A,, kl, A2, A\ in
Figure 2).

PIEZOELECTRIC CERAMICS
\,

MECHANICAL
AMPLIFIER i

SANDWICH

NODAL CIRCLES

Figure 1 : Stepped plate transducer

1344

- 1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

Figure 2: Radiation mechanism and behaviour

of the stepped plate.

Stepped plates vibrating with up to

seven nodal circles have been designed by
using an analytical approach, based on the
Rayleigh method [ 5 ] . Following the procedure
just described it is possible, with adequate
displacements of the different plate zones, to
11-

RADIUS (cm )

Figure 3 : Distribution of displacements in

axisymmetric vibrating plates
obtain any acoustic field configuration.
Focused radiators have also been designed and
constructed [61.
Different versions of the stepped-plate
transducer, in the frequency range 10-40 &,
have been developed. The first power model
was designed for 20 kHz and built with a
titanium radiating plate of 20 cm in diameter,
having an efficiency of about 75% and a 3dB
beamwidth of 5 degrees [3]. The real power
capability of this transducer was about 100 W.
Nevertheless, for an extensive use of these
transducers in industrial processing more
power capacity was needed. With this aim,
new radiating plates of larger area were
constructed [ 5 ] . In the general structure of the
transducer, the extensive radiating plate is

used to increase the radiation impedance and

the power capacity. Consequently, if the plate
surface area is enlarged the capacity of power
radiation increases and, at the same time, the
overall electroacoustic efficiency can be made
higher. In addition, if the plate radiates like a
piston (as in our case), the enlargement of the
plate surface increases directivity. To increase
the radius of the plate without increasing
thickness it is necessary to consider a higher
mode of vibration. Therefore, we designed,
constructed and tested stepped-plates with
five and seven nodal circles for 10 and 20 kHz
and diameters up to 70 cm.
The power capability of the transducer
is basically determined by the maximum
displacement we can get in the radiating plate
without breaking it off The distribution of
displacements (Fig. 3 ) makes it difficult to
obtain high power capabilities with a flat
vibrating plate (a), because of the very high
amplitude in the first nodal circle area and
much lower and decreasing amplitudes in the
others. A better situation occurs with the
stepped plates (b) where the added masses of
the steps make the amplitude distribution more
uniform. A decisive improvement was
achieved by modifLing the flat profile of the
back face of the plate by removing a small
quantity of mass in the zones covered by the
steps of the radiating face of the plate (c). In
this way, the profile of the new plate became
grooved on the back face and the
displacements
result
more
uniformly
distributed. The transducers built with the
stepped-grooved plate present a power
capacity of about 2.5 times that of the
previous model. This improvement, has been
controlled by finite element methods [ 7 ] .
In the last version of this transducer
(Fig. 4), beamwidths (at 3dB) of 1.5" (Fig. 5),
efficiencies of about 80% and power
capacities above 1 kW, have been attained.

1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

- 1345

The electronic generating system was

designed with the aim of producing a driving
signa! lying during all the working time within
the very narrow band corresponding to the
resonance frequency of the transducer.
Because this frequency can slide during

Figure 5 : Directivity pattern

powers in the range of 1 to 10 kW, new digital
amplifiers of very high efficiency (>90%) with
microprocessors for the frequency control are
under development.
Figure 4: Photograph of a stepped-plate
power transducer.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
operation in association with changes in the
mechanical load, the electronic circuit has to
be able to automatically correct the frequency
of the generated signal The procedure applied
was based on the principle that piezoelectric
transducers provide a purely resistive electric
impedance when they are vibrating at the
central point of their resonance band
(supposing compensated the interelectrode
capacitance). As a consequence, the voltage
and current signals in the transducer will be in
phase at resonance. Therefore, the electronic
system includes two channels for taking
current and voltage samples and a phase
locked loop (PLL) circuit for generating
driving signals at the transducer resonance
frequency Analog power amplifiers have been
developed for powers up to about 1 kW For
1346 - 1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

By
using
the
sonic/ultrasonic
generators above described it would be
possible, with an adequate design of the
stepped profile of the radiating plate, to
distribute the acoustic field according to the
needs of the specific application. In general,
high-power ultrasonic processing requires the
use of treatment chambers or tanks where it
would be necessary to maintain a highintensity field over all the volume under
whatever load condition. This objective would
be ideally fulfilled by a high-intensity diffuse
field which is generally unattainable because of
the reflections from different boundaries.
Additionally, this type of operation would
require very high power input per unit volume.
In practice, standing waves of different nature

will be established in the treatment enclosure.

Therefore, it seems generally convenient to
generate the best possible standing-wave
pattern in the container. To that purpose, the
piston-like stepped plate transducers appear to
be a very suitable tool. In fact, by using these
transducers, sound pressure levels higher than
175 dB have been reached under standing
wave conditions.
We have investigated by using the new
technology a certain number of the potential
applications of high intensity ultrasound in
fluids and in multiphase media, such as
particle-removal from emissions, defoaming,
and cleaning of textiles. In the following
paragraphs we will briefly describe the
experimental systems developed and the main
results obtained.
Fine particle
emissions.

removal

from

industrial

It is well known that high-intense sonic

and ultrasonic energy can produce
agglomeration of fine particles suspended in a
fluid into larger particles which are then more
easily collected. Since the first studies of
Brand, Freund and Hiedemann in Germany [SI
in 1936 up to the recent work in the United
States at Penn State University [9] [lo] much
research has been done on the theoretical and
practical aspects of acoustic agglomeration.
Nevertheless, these studies have no resulted in
a feasible industrial installation.
Several reasons can be adduced to
explain this situation. From one side, the
complexity of the phenomenon. From other
side, practical and technological causes have
played a determinant role. Firstly, the few
semi-industrial installations developed were
designed with the purpose of having a total
agglomeration and precipitation system for a
large range of particle sizes, in competition
with other clean-up systems for particulate

matter. This was not a right criterion, because

acoustic agglomeration should be applied as a
preconditioner process specially usehl for
shifting the particles from the submicron and
micron range into the 10 micron and above
size range. The second important cause of the
lack of industrial success can be attributed to
the problems related with the acoustic source.
In fact, the only conventional sound source
which
promises to
provide
certain
requirements in power capacity and efficiency
was the siren which, at the same time,
introduces important practical problems. In
fact, sirens have difficulties to provide high
overall efficiencies, are unable to radiate high
power at frequencies in the range or above 10
to 20 kHz, emit complex sounds and the
compressed air used to drive them can easily
disturb the particulate media to be treated.
Bearing in mind all these points, we
are developing a new technology to arrive at
large-scale conditioning devices for the
agglomeration of submicron and low micron
sized particles to be subsequently removed by
conventional particle removal systems, such as
electrostatic precipitators.
We have constructed and tested
several acoustic agglomerators over the 15
years we have been working in this field. The
first system we developed [ l l ] consisted of a
stepped-plate transducer coupled to a
cylindrical chamber (220 mm inside diameter
and about 2 m in length) in which a standing
wave was created with a reflector opposite to
the radiating plate (Fig. 6). The transducer had
a power capacity of about 150 W and
operated at a frequency of 20 kHz. The axial
acoustic pressure distribution obtained inside
the chamber resulted in an average sound
pressure level of about 160 dB. Tests on
agglomeration of polydisperse carbon black
smoke (particle mean radius 0.5 pm, standard
deviation 2.2) under static and dynamic flow
conditions were carried out. Figures 7 and 8
1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM - 1347

SMCKE !PILE-

STANDlhG *AV FIELD

Figure 6 : Basic scheme of the first

agglomeration system.
show, some results of these tests. As we can
see, to achieve a mean particle radius of about
10 pm, which can be easily collected by
conventional systems, two or three seconds or
acoustic treatment should be required.
From the very wide set of experimental
results obtained by using this agglomerator,
correlations between acoustic field and aerosol
a
parameters were
established
and
mathematical expression for the dynamic
growth of the particles was derived [12].
These results showed a very good agreement
with the numerical data obtained fiom the
agglomeration model developed at Penn State
University [ 131.
At present, in the area of gas cleaning
technology, there is a renewed interest in the
problem of fine particle collection because
these particles can penetrate deeply into the
lungs causing serious respiratory diseases. The
acoustic system offers a potential solution.
Nevertheless, for successhl industrial
applications some questions still remain to be
solved. First of all it is necessary to decrease
the effect of the strong linear and nonlinear
attenuation produced at ultrasonic frequencies
[14]. On the other hand, the agglomeration
process, which gives rise to a continuous
change in particle size distribution, requires
variations in frequency to reach good
efficiency.
Considering all these prerequisites, we
are now in the process of scaling up the
1348 - 1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

procedure to apply it in coal-fired utility

boilers, where submicron particles appears to
be an important fraction of the particulate
emission. To that purpose, a new type of
multifrequency agglomerator has been
developed [15]. It consists essentially of a
rectangular section chamber, with the steppedplate transducers placed on its walls (Fig. 9).
The smoke will flow along the chamber and
the transducers, which can be of various
frequencies, will be distributed in the same or

PARTICLE

R (pm)

RADIUS

Figure 7: Particle size distribution before

and after acoustic treatment. Static tests.

, 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0.1
PARTICLE

I , , , , ,

10
RADIUS R ( p m )

, I

50

Figure 8: Particle size distribution before

and after acoustic treatment. Dynamic tests.
I

alternate walls, to generate high intense

standing waves perpendicularly to the flow
direction. At present we have constructed and
acoustically tested a chamber of about four

increases the particle separation efficiency of

the electrofilter from 90 to 95 YO and this
increase was mainly caused by fine particles
collection [ 161,

Figure 9: Multifrequency agglomerator

meters in length with four transducers of 10
and 20 Idiz. The smoke will flow at about
1m/s, according t o industrial standards, in
such a way that treatment times of about 2.5
seconds can be attained with the fourtransducers arrangement. The minimum and
maximum sound pressure levels inside the
chamber are about 140 and 170 dB,
respectively for an applied power to each
transducer of 400 W. The agglomerator
includes an air-cooling system for protecting
the transducers fi-om the high temperature of
the smoke. The agglomerator is just to be
tested in a pilot installation as a preconditioner
of an electrostatic precipitator (Fig. 10).
Previous tests at laboratory scale using a
combined acoustic module and electrostatic
precipitator showed that the acoustic unit

ABSOLUTE
FILTER

ELECTROSTATIC
FILTER

Foams are frequently produced during

various manufacturing processes and, in
general, they cause difficulties in process
control and in handling equipments. High
intense sonic and ultrasonic waves are a means
of breaking foams. The mechanism of acoustic
defoaming can be a combination of the high
acoustic pressures, the radiation pressure, the
resonance of the foam bubbles, streaming and
atomization from the film surface. We have
developed equipments for defoaming by using
focusing stepped-plate radiators [6]. These
equipments have been successfully applied to
the control of foam excess produced on highspeed canning lines (20 cans per second) in
beverage industries (Fig. 1 1 ) : on passing the
focus area the foam formed on the liquid
surface is broken and the overflow is
controlled [ 171. Other applications, such as
dissipation of foams in chemical and
pharmaceutical reactors, have also been
explored. The treatment of many different
foam problems presently existing in industry,

ACOUSTIC
AGGLOYERATOR

COAL-FIRE0
PLANT

Figure 10: Scheme of the pilot installation for particle removal

1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

- 1349

seems to be not particularly difficult by using

the stepped-plate generators.

FOAM

CONVEYOR BELT

Figure 1 1 : Set-up for defoaming.

Cleaning of textiles.
Cleaning of solid rigid materials is
probably the best known application of high
intensity ultrasound. The action of ultrasonic
energy is mainly due to the effects associated
with cavitation. Nevertheless, the use of
ultrasonic waves in cleaning textiles presents
more problems than in solid rigid materials.
The fibers are more flexible, then the erosion
effect is less, and the proper reticulated
structure of the textiles favors the formation of
air bubbles layers which hinder the penetration
of ultrasonic waves. These and other
technological reasons have limited the
application of the ultrasonic process for
domestic or industrial cleaning of textiles in
spite of the anticipated advantages of this
technology in time, efficiency and energy
consumption.
The application of ultrasonic cleaning
in domestic washing machines has been
attempted several times without being brought
into the stage of a commercial product. The
proposed devices have been constructed in
general with classical sandwich transducers
1350 - 1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

attached to the typical drums used in

conventional washing machines. For this
reason, in most of the cases, high cavitation
intensity could be achieved only partially. On
the other hand, the characteristics of the
washing liquor play a determinant role. In fact,
the gas content of the liquid should be kept at
a relatively low level to improve the
penetration of acoustic waves inside the textile
structure where, taking place cavitation
(which in this case would be essentially
vaporous cavitation), the soiled layer should
be broken facilitating the action of the solvent
and consequently, the cleaning action
[ 1811191.
To achieve an efficient ultrasonic
cleaning system for textiles a specific design
has been developed. It is based on the new
transducer whose radiating element is a large
area vibrating plate. This transducer is capable
to drive in a rather homogeneous way a large
volume of water. Figure 12 shows the

Figure 12: Set-up for cleaning

experimental set-up. The plate dimensions are

calculated for the plate to be resonant in one
of its vibration modes adapted to the acoustic
field configuration to be achieved in the
washing tank. This configuration depends on
the tank geometry and the vibration amplitude
distribution in the radiating plate. The profile
of the plate can be stepped or uniform
depending of the proper acoustic field.
By using this system, an efficient
washing of textiles have been carried out after
a few minutes of treatment (less than 10
minutes) with cloth loads between 150 gr and
1 kg and an electric applied power to the
transducer of about 400W.

c31

[41

[51

CONCLUSIONS
From the experimental results
here presented it seems possible to draw a
positive conclusion about the potentialities of
the stepped-plate power generator for
industrial and large-scale applications. Its very
high efficiency and power capacity, and its
suitability for tailoring the acoustic field by
modifying the steps size make this technology
a basic tool for present and future
developments of high-intensity ultrasonics in
fluids and multiphase media.

C61

r71

REFERENCES
[ 13

[2]

E.A. Neppiras, "The prestressed

piezoelectric sandwich transducer", in
Proceeding
of
the
Conference
IJltrasonics International, 1973, pp.
295-302.
J. A. Gallego-Juarez, G. RodriguezCorral, J.L. San Emeterio Prieto and F.
Montoya Vitini, "Electroacoustic unit
for generating high sonic and ultrasonic

[SI

[91

intensities in gases and interphases''

European Patent no EP450030A1,1990.
J. A. Gallego-Jukez, G. RodriguezCorral and L. Gaete Garreton, "An
ultrasonic transducer for high power
applications in gases", Illtrasonics Vo.
16, pp. 267-27 1, 1978.
J.A. Gallego-Juarez, G. RodriguezCorral, F. R. Montero de Espinosa, J.L.
San Emeterio."New advances in the
generation of directional sonic and
ultrasonic radiation", in Proceedings of
the
Ultrasonics
International
Corference, Butterworth Co. Ltd, 1983,
pp. 295-300.
J.L. San Emeterio, J.A. Gallego-Juarez,
G.
Rodriguez-Corral,
"High
axisymmetric modes of vibration of
stepped circular plates". Journal of
Sound and fibration Vo. 14, n"3, pp.
495-505, 1987.
G. Rodriguez-Corral, J.L. San Emeterio,
J. A. Gallego-Juarez, "Focused high
power ultrasonic transducer with
stepped-plate radiator for industrial
applications in gases" in The Procedings
of
the IJltrasonics International
Conference, Butterworth Co. Ltd, 1987,
pp. 794-799.
F. Vazquez, G. Rodriguez and J.A.
Gallego, "Improvements in the design of
the stepped-plate transducer by the finite
element method", to be presented at the
FASE Conference, 15-17 Noviembre,
Valencia, Spain, 1994.
0 Brandt, H. Freund, and E.
Heidemann, "Zur Theori der akustischen
Koagulation", Kolloid Z., Vo. 77, nol,
pp.103-115, 1936.
G. Reethof, "Acoustic agglomeration of
power plant fly ash for environmental
and hot gas clean-up" transaction^ of
theASME, Vo. 110, pp. 552-557, 1988

1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

- 1351

[lo] L. Song, G.H. Koopmann and T.L

H o f i a n n , "An improved theoretical
model of acoustic agglomeration"
Transaction qf the ASME, Vo. 116,
1994, pp. 208-2 14.
[ l l ] J. A. Gallego-Juarez, E. Riera F. de
Sarabia and G. Rodriguez-Corral,
"Evaluation
of
an
ultrasonic
agglomerator as a preconditioner for the
removal of fine aerosol particle",
of
the
Ultrasonics
Proceedings
International Conference, Buttenvorths
SC.Ltd, 1979, pp. 227-232.
[ 12j E. Riera F. de Sarabia and J. A. GallegoJuarez, "Ultrasonic agglomeration of
micron aerosols under standing wave
conditions", Joitnial of Souid aid
Vibration, Vol. 110, n"3, pp. 413-427,
1986
[13] G. Reethof, "Authors closure to
comments on acoustic agglomeration of
power plant fly ash for environmental
and hot gas clean-up" (paper n"87WA/NCA-IO) by J.A. Gallego-Juarez,
E. Riera F. de Sarabia and G.
Rodriguez-Corral, Trairsactiorrs of the
ASME, Vol. 110, pp. 557-558, Oct.
1988.
[14] J. A. Gallego-Juarez, L. Gaete,
"Propagation of finite amplitude
ultrasonic waves in Air, Jouriial of the
Acomtical Society of America, Vol. 73,
n"3, pp. 761-773, March 1983.
[15] J. A. Gallego-Juarez, E. %era F. de
Sarabia, G. Rodriguez-Corral, Tamara
acustica
multifrecuencia para
la
aglomeracion y separacion de particulas
en efluentes gaseosos" Spanish patent,
application no: 9300507, March 1993.
[16] J. Magill, Ph. Caperan, J. Somers, K.
Richter, S. Fourcaudot, P. Barraux, P.
Lafarge, J. A. Gallego-Juarez, E. %era
F. de Sarabia, G. Rodriguez-Corral,
"Characteristics of an electroacoustic

1352 - 1994 ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

precipitator (EM)", J. Aerosol Sci. Vo

23, pp. 803-806, 1992.
[17] G. Rodriguez-Corral, J. A. GallegoJuarez, A. Ramos, E. Andres, J.L. San
Emeterio, F. Montoya Vitini, "High
power
ultrasonic
equipment for
industrial defoaming", in Proceediiings qf
the
IJ/tra.wmics
Intermtior la/
C'or?ference,Butterworth Co. Ltd, 1985,
pp. 506-5 1 1.
[I81 G. Rodriguez-Corral, J. A. GallegoJuarez, "Cavitation effects in ultrasonic
cleaning of textiles", in Proceediygs of
the
[Jltrasonics
Ir rterrratioml
Conference, Butterworth Co. Ltd, 1993,
pp. 845-848.
19 P. van der Vlist, S . Willemse, J.A.
Gallego-Juarez, M. Warmoeskerken, G.
Rodriguez-Corral, "Cleaning process",
european patent, no application EP93201142.2, 1993.