Customized and high-performing acoustic levitators for contact-free experiments
Journal article, 2024

Acoustic levitators are becoming an increasingly common research instrumentation for contact-free, lab-in-a-droplet studies. Recently, levitators that employ multiple, small, ultrasonic transducers have gained popularity, given their low price, temperature and spatial stability, low voltage, and accessibility. Yet, the current state-of-the-art device, TinyLev, presents limitations for certain applications in terms of stability, strength, and compactness. Herein, we developed three new levitators and evaluated the effect of the construction parameters (e.g., distance of opposing arrays, number and arrangement of transducers, etc.) on their performance. Compared to TinyLev, the best performing levitator from this work had half the number of transducers while presenting 1.7 and 3.5 times higher levitation capacity along the horizontal and vertical configurations, respectively, while the horizontal and vertical stability of a levitated object was improved 4.7 and 2.0 times, respectively. Additionally, we present a direct means to evaluate the acoustic radiation net force acting on a deformable object for uniaxial levitators, without the use of a microphone or a schlieren deflectometer for this type of levitators. The theoretical and experimental observations provide insights for adapting the acoustic levitator design for specific applications. Finally, we developed an open-source software which allows the evaluation of the acoustic pressure field generated by customized designs and provides the necessary files for 3D printing the scaffold of the levitator. This study aims to increase accessibility and promote further developments in contact-free experiments.

acoustic levitation

multiple-transducers

customized design

contact-free

Author

Smaragda Maria Argyri

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Carl Andersson

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Applied Acoustics

Nicolas Paillet

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Lars Evenäs

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Jens Ahrens

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Applied Acoustics

Asier Marzo

University of Navarra

Víktor Contreras

Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca 62210, Mexico

Romain Bordes

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices

24682284 (ISSN) 24682179 (eISSN)

Vol. 9 3 100720

NMR-Lev: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy applied to Levitating material

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) (ITM17-0436), 2019-01-01 -- 2021-12-31.

Swedish Research Council (VR) (2018-04196), 2019-01-01 -- 2021-12-31.

Subject Categories

Materials Chemistry

Other Physics Topics

Building Technologies

DOI

10.1016/j.jsamd.2024.100720

Related datasets

Customized and high-performing acoustic levitators for contact-free experiments [dataset]

DOI: 10.1016/j.jsamd.2024.100720

More information

Latest update

5/23/2024