| Abstract |
When a body immersed in a viscous fluid is subjected to a sound wave (or, equivalently, the body oscillates in the fluid otherwise at rest) a rotational fluid stream develops across a boundary layer nearby the fluid-body interphase. This so-called acoustic streaming phenomenon is responsible for a notable enhancement of heat, mass and momentum transfer and takes place in any process involving two phases subjected to relative oscillations. Understanding the fundamental mechanisms governing acoustic streaming in two-phase flows is of great interest for a wide range of applications such as sonoprocessed fluidized bed reactors, thermoacoustic refrigerators/engines, pulsatile flows through veins/arteries, hemodialysis devices, pipes in off-shore platforms, offshore piers, vibrating structures in the power-generating industry, lab-on-a-chip microfluidics and microgravity acoustic levitation, and solar thermal collectors to name a few. The aim of engineering studies on this vast diversity of systems is oriented towards maximizing the efficiency of each particular process. Even though practical problems are usually approached from disparate disciplines without any apparent linkage, the behavior of these systems is influenced by the same underlying physics. In general, acoustic streaming occurs within the interstices of porous media and usually in the presence of externally imposed steady fluid flows, which gives rise to important effects arising from the interference between viscous boundary layers developed around nearby solid surfaces and the nonlinear coupling between the oscillating and steady flows. This paper is mainly devoted to highlighting the fundamental physics behind acoustic streaming in porous media in order to provide a simple instrument to assess the relevance of this phenomenon in each particular application. The exact microscopic Navier-Stokes equations will be numerically solved for a simplified 2D system consisting of a regular array of oscillating cylinders subjected to an externally imposed steady flow. Results on the pressure drop associated with viscous losses will be compared with predictions from a simple analytical model in which the interaction between the streaming flows developed around the particles and between the oscillating and steady flows are neglected. |
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