Transient buildup and decay of thermoacoustic streaming

We recently introduced the concept of thermoacoustic streaming in microchannels wherein a thermal field is generated inside an acoustic cavity. The result is a fast and controllable streaming for which the thermal energy is provided either by an LED light source [1], or a laser [2]. While in previous works we have measured this effect at steady state, we now present measurements of the build-up and decay. We believe that the presented approach can offer the basis for particle sorting or manipulation applications.