Ultrasonic drying processing chamber

The design of a high intensity ultrasonic chamber for drying process was investigated. The acoustic pressure distribution in the ultrasonic drying chamber was simulated solving linear elastic models with attenuation for the acoustic-structure interaction. Together with the government equations, the selection of appropriate boundary conditions, mesh refinement, and configuration parameters of the calculation methods, which is of great importance to simulate adequately the process, were considered. Numerical solution, applying the finite element method (FEM), of acoustic-structure interactions involves to couple structural and fluid elements (with different degrees of freedom), whose solution implies several problems of hardware requirements and software configuration, which were solved. To design the drying chamber, the influence of the directivity of the drying open camera and the staggered reflectors over the acoustic pressure distribution was analyzed. Furthermore, to optimize the influence of the acoustic energy on the drying process, the average value of the acoustic energy distribution in the drying chamber was studied. This would determine the adequate position of the food samples to be dried. For this purpose, the acoustic power absorbed by the samples will be analyzed in later studies.