A macrosonic system for industrial processing

The development of high-power applications of sonic and ultrasonic energy in industrial processing requires a great variety of practical systems with characteristics which are dependent on the effect to be exploited. Nevertheless, the majority of systems are basically constituted of a treatment chamber and one or several transducers coupled to it. Therefore, the feasibility of the application mainly depends on the efficiency of the transducer–chamber system. This paper deals with a macrosonic system which is essentially constituted of a high-power transducer with a double steppedplate radiator coupled to a chamber of square section. The radiator, which has a rectangular shape, is placed on one face of the chamber in order to drive the inside fluid volume. The stepped profile of the radiator allows a piston-like radiation to be obtained. The radiation from the back face of the radiator is also applied to the chamber by using adequate reflectors. Transducer–chamber systems for sonic and ultrasonic frequencies have been developed with power capacities up to about 5 kW for the treatment of fluid volumes of several cubic meters. The characteristics of these systems are presented in this paper.