Dynamical characterization of a power ultrasonic bath

Abstract

Power ultrasound has been used for many years to improve chemical and biochemical processes. As a summary, four main parameters are used to characterize an ultrasonic bath: main frequency of operation, mean delivered power, transducer type and steady state temperature. For a given process we must determine the ultrasonic power per unit of volume and the relevant parameters to predict the temperature of the process. These thermal parameters are the time constant and the heat transfer coefficient. In this work, we present a detailed study of the thermal characterization for an ultrasonic bath. We use the complete dynamical process and the response to a well-known power source to characterize the bath. This procedure is useful in the case of large systems without direct measure of the electric power delivered. This allows the determination of volumetric power delivered by the ultrasonic bath, the time constant and the loss coefficient of the bath.