Acoustics is the branch of physics that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics is present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio and noise control industries.
Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure and latent heat. It is derived from the Greek word πιέζειν; piezein, which means to squeeze or press, and ἤλεκτρον ēlektron, which means amber, an ancient source of electric charge. French physicists Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered piezoelectricity in 1880.
A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another.
A drill string on a drilling rig is a column, or string, of drill pipe that transmits drilling fluid and torque to the drill bit. The term is loosely applied to the assembled collection of the drill pipe, drill collars, tools and drill bit. The drill string is hollow so that drilling fluid can be pumped down through it and circulated back up the annulus.
Drilling is a cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at rates from hundreds to thousands of revolutions per minute. This forces the cutting edge against the work-piece, cutting off chips (swarf) from the hole as it is drilled.
An electric toothbrush is a toothbrush that makes rapid automatic bristle motions, either back-and-forth oscillation or rotation-oscillation, in order to clean teeth. Motions at sonic speeds or below are made by a motor. In the case of ultrasonic toothbrushes, ultrasonic motions are produced by a piezoelectric crystal. A modern electric toothbrush is usually powered by a rechargeable battery charged through inductive charging when the brush sits in the charging base between uses.
A drilling rig is a machine that creates holes in the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person and such are called augers. Drilling rigs can sample subsurface mineral deposits, test rock, soil and groundwater physical properties, and also can be used to install sub-surface fabrications, such as underground utilities, instrumentation, tunnels or wells. Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks, tracks or trailers, or more permanent land or marine-based structures. The term "rig" therefore generally refers to the complex equipment that is used to penetrate the surface of the Earth's crust.
A piezoelectric motor or piezo motor is a type of electric motor based on the change in shape of a piezoelectric material when an electric field is applied. Piezoelectric motors use the converse piezoelectric effect of piezoelectric sensors, in which deformation or vibration of the piezoelectric material produces an electric charge. An electrical circuit makes acoustic or ultrasonic vibrations in the piezoelectric material, which produce linear or rotary motion. In one mechanism, the elongation in a single plane makes a series of stretches and position holds, analogous to the way a caterpillar moves.
A Countersink is a conical hole cut into a manufactured object, or the cutter used to cut such a hole. A common use is to allow the head of a countersunk bolt, screw or rivet, when placed in the hole, to sit flush with or below the surface of the surrounding material. A countersink may also be used to remove the burr left from a drilling or tapping operation thereby improving the finish of the product and removing any hazardous sharp edges.
An ultrasonic motor is a type of electric motor powered by the ultrasonic vibration of a component, the stator, placed against another component, the rotor or slider depending on the scheme of operation. Ultrasonic motors differ from piezoelectric actuators in several ways, though both typically use some form of piezoelectric material, most often lead zirconate titanate and occasionally lithium niobate or other single-crystal materials. The most obvious difference is the use of resonance to amplify the vibration of the stator in contact with the rotor in ultrasonic motors. Ultrasonic motors also offer arbitrarily large rotation or sliding distances, while piezoelectric actuators are limited by the static strain that may be induced in the piezoelectric element.
Sonication is the act of applying sound energy to agitate particles in a sample, for various purposes such as the extraction of multiple compounds from plants, microalgae and seaweeds. The enhancement in the extraction of bioactive compounds achieved using sonication is attributed to cavitation in the solvent, a process that involves nucleation, growth, and collapse of bubbles in a liquid, driven by the passage of the ultrasonic waves. Ultrasonic frequencies (>20 kHz) are usually used, leading to the process also being known as ultrasonication or ultra-sonication.
Vibration isolation is the process of isolating an object, such as a piece of equipment, from the source of vibrations.
Shale shakers are components of drilling equipment used in many industries, such as coal cleaning, mining, oil and gas drilling. They are the first phase of a solids control system on a drilling rig, and are used to remove large solids (cuttings) from the drilling fluid ("mud").
Directional Boring, often undifferentiated from Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), is a minimal impact trenchless method of installing underground pipe, conduit, or cables in a relatively shallow arc or radius along a prescribed underground bore path by using a surface-launched drilling rig. With respect to the pipeline/utility industry, the term "Directional Boring" or "Bore" is generally reserved for mini/small sized drilling rigs, small diameter bores, and crossing lengths in terms of hundreds of feet. Generally, the term Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is intended to describe large/maxi sized drilling rigs, large diameter bores, and crossing lengths in terms of thousand of feet. Although directional boring and HDD are similar in some respects to directional drilling associated with the oil industry, an equal comparison cannot be drawn between the procedures as they serve two entirely different functions. Directional Boring/HDD offers significant advantages over traditional cut and cover pipeline/utility installations and are routinely used when trenching or excavating is not practical. Directional Boring/HDD can be utilized with various pipe materials such as PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene, ductile iron, and steel as long as the pipe is sized appropriately to withstand installation stresses imparted during pullback.
Ultrasonic transducers or ultrasonic sensors are a type of acoustic sensor divided into three broad categories: transmitters, receivers and transceivers. Transmitters convert electrical signals into ultrasound, receivers convert ultrasound into electrical signals, and transceivers can both transmit and receive ultrasound.
Ultrasonic machining, or strictly speaking the "Ultrasonic vibration machining", is a subtraction manufacturing process that removes material from the surface of a part through high frequency, low amplitude vibrations of a tool against the material surface in the presence of fine abrasive particles. The tool travels vertically or orthogonal to the surface of the part at amplitudes of 0.05 to 0.125 mm. The fine abrasive grains are mixed with water to form a slurry that is distributed across the part and the tip of the tool. Typical grain sizes of the abrasive material range from 100 to 1000, where smaller grains produce smoother surface finishes.
In ultrasonic machining, welding and mixing, a sonotrode is a tool that creates ultrasonic vibrations and applies this vibrational energy to a gas, liquid, solid or tissue.
Acoustic resonance spectroscopy (ARS) is a method of spectroscopy in the acoustic region, primarily the sonic and ultrasonic regions. ARS is typically much more rapid than HPLC and NIR. It is non destructive and requires no sample preparation as the sampling waveguide can simply be pushed into a sample powder/liquid or in contact with a solid sample. To date, the AR spectrometer has successfully differentiated and quantified sample analytes in various forms;. It has been used to measure and monitor the progression of chemical reactions, such as the setting and hardening of concrete from cement paste to solid. Acoustic spectrometry has also been used to measure the volume fraction of colloids in a dispersion medium, as well as for the investigation of physical properties of colloidal dispersions, such as aggregation and particle size distribution. Typically, these experiments are carried out with sinusoidal excitation signals and the experimental observation of signal attenuation. From a comparison of theoretical attenuation to experimental observation, the particle size distribution and aggregation phenomena are inferred.
Piezoelectric Bone Surgery is a process that utilizes piezoelectric vibrations in the application of cutting bone tissue. The process was developed by Tomaso Vercellotti and has been patented. It is indicated for use in oral, maxillofacial, cranial and spinal procedures.
