Simulation of the spatial distribution of the acoustic pressure in sonochemical reactors with numerical methods: A review

Abstract

Please cite this article as: I. Tudela, V. Sáez, M.D. Esclapez, M.I. Díez-García, P. Bonete, J. González-García, Simulation of the spatial distribution of the acoustic pressure in sonochemical reactors with numerical methods: A review, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry (2013), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.ultsonch.2013.11.012 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. AbstractNumerical methods for the calculation of the acoustic field inside sonoreactors have rapidly emerged in the last 15 years. This paper summarizes some of the most important works on this topic presented in the past, along with the diverse numerical works that have been published since then, reviewing the state of the art from a qualitative point of view. In this sense, we illustrate and discuss some of the models recently developed by the scientific community to deal with some of the complex events that take place in a sonochemical reactor such as the vibration of the reactor walls and the nonlinear phenomena inherent to the presence of ultrasonic cavitation. In addition, we point out some of the upcoming challenges that must be addressed in order to develop a reliable tool for the proper designing of efficient sonoreactors and the scale-up of sonochemical processes.

Progress in Ultrasonic Cleaning Research

“…On the other hand, for the higher DO-supersaturation cases ( = 3.0 and 4.0), acoustic bubbles migrate mainly in the direction of the incident ultrasound propagation toward the water surface. This means that the standing-wave structure in the pressure field is impaired by dissipative effects in the dynamics of the densely populated bubbles [35].…”

Guidelines for the design of efficient sono-microreactors

“…Therefore, such limitations, constituting main challenges in this area of research, should be examined and addressed. As pointed out in recent reviews concerning the simulation of sonochemical systems [15,26], modeling including cavitation can be carried out through the so-called continuum and particle approaches. The continuum approach assumes the bubble distribution as a continuous function of time, space, and bubble size.…”

“…The optimization of sono-microreactors necessarily requires more advanced numerical methods in order to obtain a proper understanding of the complexity that these sonochemical systems involve [26]. The next section will establish a framework leading to a more precise simulation of the acoustic pressure, vibrational modes as well as the strain and stress distributions.…”

Interplay Between Mechanochemistry and Sonochemistry

“…Once again, such effects depend on the characteristics of the ultrasonic field. Numerical methods and simulations have been introduced to predict the active zones while bearing in mind that, by definition, a cavitating field is a heterogeneous system (liquid and bubbles) [32][33][34]. In general, reproducible results are attained as long as external factors and reactor shape are optimized, although some practitioners often ignore the critical issue of power control.…”