3D-Printed Liquid Cell Resonator with Piezoelectric Actuation for In-Line Density-Viscosity Measurements

Abstract

The in-line monitoring of liquid properties, such as density and viscosity, is a key process in many industrial areas such as agro-food, automotive or biotechnology, requiring real-time automation, low-cost and miniaturization, while maintaining a level of accuracy and resolution comparable to benchtop instruments. In this paper, 3D-printed cuboid-shaped liquid cells featuring a rectangular vibrating plate in one of the sides, actuated by PZT piezoelectric layers, were designed, fabricated and tested. The device was resonantly excited in the 3rd-order roof tile-shaped vibration mode of the plate and validated as a density-viscosity sensor. Furthermore, conditioning circuits were designed to adapt the impedance of the resonator and to cancel parasitic effects. This allowed us to implement a phase-locked loop-based oscillator circuit whose oscillation frequency and voltage amplitude could be calibrated against density and viscosity of the liquid flowing through the cell. To demonstrate the performance, the sensor was calibrated with a set of artificial model solutions of grape must, representing stages of a wine fermentation process. Our results demonstrate the high potential of the low-cost sensor to detect the decrease in sugar and the increase in ethanol concentrations during a grape must fermentation, with a resolution of 10 µg/mL and 3 µPa·s as upper limits for the density and viscosity, respectively.

Single-cell system using monolithic PMUTs-on-CMOS to monitor fluid hydrodynamic properties

“…The characterization of liquid properties is becoming progressively more popular in an increasing number of fields: for example, in the quality assessment in industrial applications, i.e., lubricants 1 , 2 ; in fermentation processes 3 , and in health care applications (i.e., the use of blood density and viscosity changes as an indication of heart disease 4 ). In most of these cases, tiny-sized devices that require small amounts of liquid and provide a fast response are desirable, points in which microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) excel.…”

Fabrication of Beta-Barium Borate Sensing Head for Non-Invasive Measurement of Fluidic Concentration Variations

“…In order to achieve the desired goal of substance synthesis and effect, it is necessary to develop an accurate and real-time monitoring procedure for concentration variations. Most of the existing schemes are based on measurements of the density [7][8][9][10], conductive [11][12][13], dielectric constant [14][15][16], and refractive index [1][2][3][4] in liquids.…”

“…Among these schemes, the conductivity can be detected by a metallic sensing head, the density can be detected using ultrasonic technology [9,10], and the dielectric coefficient or refractive index can be measured by electromagnetic waves. In the measuring process, the electrode sensing head needs to make contact with the liquid sample.…”