Self-sensing cavitation detection capability of horn geometries for high temperature application

Abstract

Cavitation is utilized in a wide range of applications. As examples ultrasonic cleaning baths and emulsification in sonochemistry may be mentioned. For a high temperature ultrasonic assisted casting process, the authors’ aim is to detect cavitation in the ongoing process using cavitation noise spectra without additional sensors like hydrophones, which disturb the sound field. The authors’ aim is to detect cavitation from the ultrasonic transducers’ current signal. Two different horn geometries are tested for their cavitation detection capability. To investigate the frequency components in the transducers’ current signal without the influence of the horns’ individual transfer functions, the measured data are processed to obtain the uninfluenced signals. Different frequency components are found in the measurements, which can be used as indicators for cavitation.