Vibration effects of standing surface acoustic wave for separating suspended particles in lubricating oil

Abstract

The microfluidic chip can be used to separate particles via the acoustic radiation force and can be applied to the separation of impurity particles from lubricating oil. A device that separates particles by controlling the acoustic radiation force via standing surface acoustic waves (SSAWs) was proposed. The concentration and separation of suspended particles were simulated by using the COMSOL Multiphysics modeling software. The force exerted on suspended particles and their subsequent motion in the microfluidic channel were analyzed, and then the concentration of particles exposed to SSAWs was verified. We also investigate how the frequency of the SSAW affects the particle concentration and discuss the advantage of using SSAWs to concentrate and separate particles. The separating feasibility was verified by suspended particles in lubricating oil experiments according to simulation results.