Simulation of Acoustic Agglomeration of Aerosol Droplets in a Half-Wave Resonator

Deposition of air-suspended micron di-ethylhexyl-sebacate droplets in a closed rectangular half-wave resonator under the influence of acoustic streaming and acoustic radiation pressure is numerically studied. Two characteristic oscillation modes are considered. The first one has the amplitudes corresponding to the classical Rayleigh acoustic streaming, while the second one combines a relatively high acoustic velocity for the regime transient to shock waves and a regular flow pattern. For these modes, the change in the number concentration of droplets is calculated, and a comparison with available experimental data is given. It has been established that even with a relatively low amplitude of the oscillations excitation, a sufficiently intense acoustic streaming is generated, different from the classical one, which ensures a higher rate of aerosol droplet deposition (up to 3 times) compared to the deposition in the classical Rayleigh streaming mode.