The influence of hydrodynamic turbulence on acoustic turbulent agglomeration

The potential applications of acoustic agglomeration of aerosols in industry are usually under high flow rate conditions. The acoustic hydrodynamic turbulence-turbulence interaction in a resonance tube is the subject of this investigation. Measurements are made at both loop and node positions with a sound pressure level of 161.5 dB (re 20 μPa) and hydrodynamic Reynolds number Re ranging from 0 to 14000. Important parameters of the final state such as the rms turbulent velocity, the integral scale, the Taylor and Kolmogorov microscales, and the rate of turbulent energy dissipation ∈ are estimated. It is found that as long as the hydrodynamic flow is turbulent ∈ increases monotonically with increasing values of Re. Furthermore, ∈ is consistently larger at loop than at node. Based on this information, a numerical calculation of the turbulent agglomeration kernel K_T is performed. The strong enhancement of the turbulence-turbulence interaction on K_T at higher values of the Reynolds number Re indicates that the high hydrodynamic flow industrial environment favors turbulent acoustic coagulation for emission control.