Mapping of an ultrasonic horn: link primary and secondary effects of ultrasound

The erratic behaviour of cavitational activity exhibited in a sonochemical reactor pose a serious problem in the efficient design and scale-up; thus it becomes important to identify the active and passive zones existing in the reactor so as to enable proper placement of the reaction mixtures for achieving maximum benefits. In the present work mapping of ultrasonic horn has been carried with the help of local pressure measurement using a hydrophone and estimation of amount of liberated iodine using the Weissler reaction and a quantitative relationship has been established. The measured local pressure pulses have been used in the theoretical simulations of the bubble dynamics equations to check the type of cavitation taking place locally and also estimate the possible collapse pressure pulse in terms of maximum bubble size reached during the cavitation phenomena. Relationship has been also established between the observed iodine liberation rates and the maximum bubble size reached. The engineers can easily use these unique relationships in efficient design, as the direct quantification of the secondary effect is possible. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.