Experimental and numerical analysis of the emulsification of oil droplets in water with high frequency focused ultrasound

Focused high frequency ultrasound emulsification provides significant benefits such as enhanced stability, finer droplets, elevated focal pressure, lowered power usage, minimal surfactant usage and improved dispersion. Hence, in this study, the high frequency focused ultrasound emulsification of oil droplets in water was investigated through experiments and numerical modeling. The effect of transducer power (74–400 W), frequency (1.1 and 3.3 MHz), oil viscosity (10.6–512 mPas), interfacial tension (25–250 mN/m) and initial droplet radius (10–750 µm) on the emulsification process was assessed. In addition, the mechanism of droplet break-up was examined. The experiments showed that the acoustic pressure increased from 9.01 MPa to 26.24 MPa as the power was raised from 74 W to 400 W. At 74 W, the Weber number (We) at the surface and focal zone are 0.5 and 939.8, respectively. However, at 400 W, the We at the transducer surface and focal region reached 2.7 and 6451.8, respectively. Thus, bulb-like and weak catastrophic break up dominates the emulsification at 74 W. The catastrophic break up at 400 W is more vigorous because the ultrasound disruptive stress and We are higher. The time for the catastrophic dispersion of a single droplet at We = 939.8 and We = 6451.8 are 1.01 ms and 0.45 ms, respectively. The numerical model gives reasonable prediction of the trend and magnitude of the experimental acoustic pressure data. The surface and focal pressure amplitudes were estimated with errors of ∼ 6.5% and ∼ 10%, respectively. The predicted Reynolds number (Re) between 74 and 400 W were 8442 and 21364, respectively. The acoustic pressure at the focal region were ∼ 26 MPa and ∼ 69 MPa at frequencies of 1.1 MHz and 3.3 MHz, respectively. Moreover, the acoustic velocities were ∼ 16 m/s and ∼ 42 m/s at 1.1 MHz and 3.3 MHz, respectively. Hence, smaller droplets could be attained at higher frequency excitation under intense catastrophic modes. The Ohnesorge number (Oh) increased from 0.062 to 3.12 with the viscosity between 10.6 mPas and 530 mPas. However, the We remained constant at 856.14 for the studied range. Generally, higher critical We is required for the different breakup stages as the viscosity ratio is elevated. Moreover, the We increased from 25.68 to 1284.22 as the droplet radius was elevated from 15 to 750 µm. Larger droplets allow for higher possibility and intensity of breakup due to diminished viscous and interfacial resistance.