FOULING DETECTION IN FOOD VESSELS USING INTERDIGITAL LAMB WAVE TRANSDUCER

Lamb waves are used to detect fouling in food vessels. The propagation of the Lamb waves in plates exhibits many modes and dispersion characteristics, which have great influence on fouling detection. The relative distribution of the in-plane and out-of-plane displacement of the mode across the thickness of the plate will determine the sensitivity of the mode to a particular loading condition. By considering the dispersion and multi-mode characteristics of guided waves, an interdigital polyvi- nylidene fluoride （PVDF） transducer is designed to realize the mode selection of gnided waves, and a single a0 mode is used for guided wave detection. Fouling detection experiments are conducted in the laboratory using epoxy adhesive on a thin plate. Using the interdigital PVDF transducer, three fouled areas are detected. Using one of the time-frequency analysis methods, the waveforms are further processed. This also demonstrates the validity of this method of fouling detection.

Tunable patterning of microscale particles using a surface acoustic wave device with slanted-finger interdigital transducers

Polymer-based materials with patterned functional particles have been used to develop smart devices with multiple functionalities.This paper presents a novel method to pattern microscale particles into biocompatible polyethylene glycol diacrylate(PEGDA)fluid through a designed surface acoustic wave(SAW)device with slanted-finger interdigital transducers(SFITs).By applying signals of different frequencies,the SFITs can excite SAWs with various wavelengths to pattern the microscale particles.The structural design and working principle of the SAW device with SFITs are firstly presented.To investigate the generation of standing SAWs and pressure field distributions of the SAW device with SFITs,a numerical model was developed.Simulation results showed that different strip-shape patterned pressure fields can be generated,and the period and width of adjacent strips can be adjusted by changing the frequencies of the excitation signals.Experiments were performed to verify that the microscale particles in the PEGDA solution can be successfully patterned into strip-shape patterns with various positions,periods,and widths.The results obtained in this study demonstrate that the developed method of using an SAW device with SFITs can be used for tunable patterning of microscale particles in solutions,and shows great potential for biomedical and microfluidic applications.

Focusing of Surface Acoustic Wave on a Piezoelectric Crystal

We investigate the focusing phenomena of a surface acoustic wave （SAW） field generated by a circular-arc interdigital transducer （IDT） on a piezoelectric crystal. A rigorous vector field theory of surface excitation on the crystal we developed previously is used to evaluate the convergent SAW field instead of the prevalent scalar angular spectrum used in optics. The theoretical results show that the anisotropy of a medium has great impact on the focusing properties of the acoustic beams, such as focal length and symmetrical distributions near the focus. A dark field method is used in experiment to observe the focusing of the SAW tield optically. Although the convergent phenomena of SAW field on the anisotropic media or piezoelectric crystals are very complicated, the experimental data are in agreement with those from the rigorous theory.

Pspice Equivalent Circuit Model for Implementation of Surface Acoustic Wave Filter

The crystals of quartz,lithium,and piezoelectric ceramics have a piezoelectric effect as their major characteristic.The surface acoustic wave filter(SAWF) was designed by using this property.However,the experimental cost of the fabrication of SAWF is higher than that of mechanical filter or LC filter.Through the RLC(resistor,inductor and capacitor) network equivalent circuit and the interdigital transducer(IDT) equivalent circuit model,the electromotive force,the mechanical impedance of piezoelectric plate,and the wave number of Mason circuit model were researched.The equivalent circuit can be used to reduce product development costs and shorten the development cycle.Comparing simulation result by Pspice software with the theory of SAWF,the simulated waveform is similar to theory measurement,and the equivalent circuit model is verified.

Creation and research of the SAW transducer with a single-phase grid and a piezoelectric zinc oxide film

A method for obtaining a new type of surface acoustic wave(SAW)transducer operating at double frequency with a single-phase closed-loop lattice and a piezoelectric zinc oxide film is developed and experimentally investigated.A method for calculating such a transducer has been developed,its equivalent circuit has been compiled,taking into account propagation losses,losses in the metal film and the inductance of the connecting wires.When the frequency is doubled,the SAW attenuation per unit length increases.