Author

Ari Mercado

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Degree

MSE in Mechanical Engineering

Date Completed

2015

First Committee Member

Lipkens, Bart

Second Committee Member

Keyser, Thomas

Third Committee Member

Mallory, Jennifer

Additional Committee Member(s)

Cheraghi, Hossein

Abstract

"Acoustic resonator systems have been used for cell sorting, separation of lipids from blood cells, oil-water separation, etc. The acoustic radiation force is the main force behind acoustophoresis applications. This acoustic radiation force arises from the scattering of the acoustic waves on particles suspended in a fluid with an imposed acoustic field. The acoustic radiation force causes the motion of the suspended particles to parts of minimum pressure amplitude (nodes), or to parts of maximum pressure amplitude (anti-nodes), depending on the properties of the liquid and the particles (acoustophoresis). The work presented in this thesis attempts to find a 3D numerical framework model of an acoustic resonator filtration system. The motivation for this study is first to increase the understanding of microparticle acoustophoresis and second to develop a numerical framework that could be used to predict the acoustophoretic radiation forces as function of particle size, channel geometry and suspending medium to help in the design and development of such resonator systems. Throughout the work of this thesis 2D and 3D numerical models were developed to studied microparticle acoustophoresis, by comparing the 2D and 3D numerical models predictions to the equivalent theoretical models. The numerical models developed obtain the pressure and velocity acoustic fields for a complex sound field for 3D rectangular geometries using COMSOL Multiphysics(R). This acoustic field was used to calculate the Acoustic Radiation Potential and the Acoustic Radiation Force using Gor’kov’s equation. A separate model written in MATLAB is used to validate the numerical model by evaluating the theoretical expression of the acoustic radiation potential and force on a sphere in plane standing wave fields according to the theory of Barmatz and Collas"

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