Ultrasound is sound with frequencies greater than 20 kilohertz. This frequency is the approximate upper audible limit of human hearing in healthy young adults. The physical principles of acoustic waves apply to any frequency range, including ultrasound. Ultrasonic devices operate with frequencies from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz.
Ultrasonic welding is an industrial process whereby high-frequency ultrasonic acoustic vibrations are locally applied to work pieces being held together under pressure to create a solid-state weld. It is commonly used for plastics and metals, and especially for joining dissimilar materials. In ultrasonic welding, there are no connective bolts, nails, soldering materials, or adhesives necessary to bind the materials together. When used to join metals, the temperature stays well below the melting point of the involved materials, preventing any unwanted properties which may arise from high temperature exposure of the metal.
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. Ultrasonic frequencies (> 20 kHz) are usually used, leading to the process also being known as ultrasonication or ultra-sonication.
Laser-ultrasonics uses lasers to generate and detect ultrasonic waves. It is a non-contact technique used to measure materials thickness, detect flaws and carry out materials characterization. The basic components of a laser-ultrasonic system are a generation laser, a detection laser and a detector.
Ultrasonic cleaning is a process that uses ultrasound to agitate a fluid, with a cleaning effect. Ultrasonic cleaners come in a variety of sizes, from small desktop units with an internal volume of less than 0.5 litres (0.13 US gal), to large industrial units with volumes approaching 1,000 litres.
Ultrasonic testing (UT) is a family of non-destructive testing techniques based on the propagation of ultrasonic waves in the object or material tested. In most common UT applications, very short ultrasonic pulse waves with centre frequencies ranging from 0.1-15 MHz and occasionally up to 50 MHz, are transmitted into materials to detect internal flaws or to characterize materials. A common example is ultrasonic thickness measurement, which tests the thickness of the test object, for example, to monitor pipework corrosion and erosion. Ultrasonic testing is extensively used to detect flaws in welds.
In chemistry, the study of sonochemistry is concerned with understanding the effect of ultrasound in forming acoustic cavitation in liquids, resulting in the initiation or enhancement of the chemical activity in the solution. Therefore, the chemical effects of ultrasound do not come from a direct interaction of the ultrasonic sound wave with the molecules in the solution.
Sound from ultrasound is the name given here to the generation of audible sound from modulated ultrasound without using an active receiver. This happens when the modulated ultrasound passes through a nonlinear medium which acts, intentionally or unintentionally, as a demodulator.
Megasonic cleaning is a specialized cleaning method that utilizes high-frequency sound waves to remove contaminants from delicate surfaces. It is particularly effective in industries like semiconductor manufacturing, optics, and medical device production, where precision and gentle cleaning are crucial. It is a type of acoustic cleaning related to ultrasonic cleaning. Similar to ultrasonic cleaning, megasonic cleaning uses a transducer that sits on top of a piezoelectric substrate. The transducer creates acoustic waves at a higher frequency than ultrasonic cleaning. As a result, the cavitation that occurs is reduced and on a much smaller scale.
Ultrasonic transducers and ultrasonic sensors are devices that generate or sense ultrasound energy. They can be 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.
An electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) is a transducer for non-contact acoustic wave generation and reception in conducting materials. Its effect is based on electromagnetic mechanisms, which do not need direct coupling with the surface of the material. Due to this couplant-free feature, EMATs are particularly useful in harsh, i.e., hot, cold, clean, or dry environments. EMATs are suitable to generate all kinds of waves in metallic and/or magnetostrictive materials. Depending on the design and orientation of coils and magnets, shear horizontal (SH) bulk wave mode, surface wave, plate waves such as SH and Lamb waves, and all sorts of other bulk and guided-wave modes can be excited. After decades of research and development, EMAT has found its applications in many industries such as primary metal manufacturing and processing, automotive, railroad, pipeline, boiler and pressure vessel industries, in which they are typically used for nondestructive testing (NDT) of metallic structures.
Ultrasonic soldering is a flux-less soldering process that uses ultrasonic energy, without the need for chemicals to solder materials, such as glass, ceramics, and composites, hard to solder metals and other sensitive components which cannot be soldered using conventional means.
Acoustic microscopy is microscopy that employs very high or ultra high frequency ultrasound. Acoustic microscopes operate non-destructively and penetrate most solid materials to make visible images of internal features, including defects such as cracks, delaminations and voids.
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.
In the field of industrial ultrasonic testing, ultrasonic thickness measurement (UTM) is a method of performing non-destructive measurement (gauging) of the local thickness of a solid element based on the time taken by the ultrasound wave to return to the surface. This type of measurement is typically performed with an ultrasonic thickness gauge.
Guided wave testing (GWT) is a non-destructive evaluation method. The method employs acoustic waves that propagate along an elongated structure while guided by its boundaries. This allows the waves to travel a long distance with little loss in energy. Nowadays, GWT is widely used to inspect and screen many engineering structures, particularly for the inspection of metallic pipelines around the world. In some cases, hundreds of meters can be inspected from a single location. There are also some applications for inspecting rail tracks, rods and metal plate structures.
Ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is a metallurgical processing technique, similar to work hardening, in which ultrasonic energy is applied to a metal object. This technique is part of the High Frequency Mechanical Impact (HFMI) processes. Other acronyms are also equivalent: Ultrasonic Needle Peening (UNP), Ultrasonic Peening (UP). Ultrasonic impact treatment can result in controlled residual compressive stress, grain refinement and grain size reduction. Low and high cycle fatigue are enhanced and have been documented to provide increases up to ten times greater than non-UIT specimens.
Ultrasonic antifouling is a technology that uses high frequency sound (ultrasound) to prevent or reduce biofouling on underwater structures, surfaces, and medium. Ultrasound is just high frequency sound. Ultrasound has the same physical properties as human-audible sound. The method has two primary forms: sub-cavitation intensity and cavitation intensity. Sub-cavitation methods create high frequency vibrations, whilst cavitation methods cause more destructive microscopic pressure changes. Both methods inhibit or prevent biofouling by algae and other single-celled organisms.
Sonoelectrochemistry is the application of ultrasound in electrochemistry. Like sonochemistry, sonoelectrochemistry was discovered in the early 20th century. The effects of power ultrasound on electrochemical systems and important electrochemical parameters were originally demonstrated by Moriguchi and then by Schmid and Ehert when the researchers investigated the influence of ultrasound on concentration polarisation, metal passivation and the production of electrolytic gases in aqueous solutions. In the late 1950s, Kolb and Nyborg showed that the electrochemical solution hydrodynamics in an electrochemical cell was greatly increased in the presence of ultrasound and described this phenomenon as acoustic streaming. In 1959, Penn et al. demonstrated that sonication had a great effect on the electrode surface activity and electroanalyte species concentration profile throughout the solution. In the early 1960s, the electrochemist Allen J. Bard showed in controlled potential coulometry experiments that ultrasound significantly enhances mass transport of electrochemical species from the bulk solution to the electroactive surface. In the range of ultrasonic frequencies [20 kHz – 2 MHz], ultrasound has been applied to many electrochemical systems, processes and areas of electrochemistry both in academia and industry, as this technology offers several benefits over traditional technologies. The advantages are as follows: significant thinning of the diffusion layer thickness (δ) at the electrode surface; increase in electrodeposit/electroplating thickness; increase in electrochemical rates, yields and efficiencies; increase in electrodeposit porosity and hardness; increase in gas removal from electrochemical solutions; increase in electrode cleanliness and hence electrode surface activation; lowering in electrode overpotentials ; and suppression in electrode fouling.
Sonocatalysis is a field of sonochemistry which is based on the use of ultrasound to change the reactivity of a catalyst in homogenous or heterogenous catalysis. It is generally used to support catalysis. This method of catalysis has been known since the creation of sonochemistry in 1927 by Alfred Lee Loomis (1887–1975) and Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955). Sonocatalysis depends on ultrasounds, which were discovered in 1794 by the Italian biologist Lazarro Spallanzani (1729–1799).
