Acoustic cleaning systems can significantly improve the cleaning of air pollution control equipment, heat transfer surfaces, material handling and storage equipment, and areas of production where particulate build-up occurs.

Acoustic cleaners are air-operated devices that emit low frequency high energy sound waves. The sound waves create vibrations that break apart and dislodge material deposits from surfaces. The vibrations are powerful enough to break apart heavy concentrations of particulate, but gentle enough to not harm the surface. Once the material has been dislodged, gravity and/or gas flow remove it.

Because acoustic cleaning is applied in such a wide range of applications and areas to be cleaned, Powerwave acoustic cleaners are offered in a wide selection of sizes, with varying fundamental frequencies. Acoustic cleaners with lower fundamental frequencies (75 Hz to 125 Hz) are larger in physical size and provide a greater effective cleaning area as compared to the smaller, more compact acoustic cleaner with higher fundamental frequencies (230 Hz to 360 Hz).

To remove particulate with acoustic cleaners, the particles are resonated with sound. A certain sound intensity (dB) at a given frequency is required to fluidize the particulate. Acoustic energy emitted at the lower frequencies (75 Hz to 125 Hz) do not require as much intensity (dB) to resonate the particles. The acoustic cleaners with fundamental frequencies of 75 Hz to 125 Hz also produce larger wavelengths. The combination of these two factors is the reason an acoustic cleaner with a fundamental frequency of 75 Hz that emits an intensity level of 147 dB can clean a substantially larger area than an acoustic cleaner with a fundamental frequency of 230 Hz that generates similar intensity levels (dB).

Lower Frequency = Greater Effective Cleaning Area

Recommended Links:

• http://asa.aip.org/
• http://www.scientific-computing.co.uk/acoust/index.html
• http://www.npl.co.uk/npl/publications/acoustics/
• http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/soucon.html#c1
• http://www.campanellaacoustics.com/faq.htm
• http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/150/index.html
• http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/demobook/chapter3.htm
  

Recommended Publications:

• "Vibrations and Waves" by A.P. French; Published by W.W. Norton & Co.; 1971
   
• "Principles of Vibration and Sound" by Thomas Rossing and Neville Fletcher: Published by Springer-Verlag; 1995
   
• "Acoustics" by Alan Pierce; Published by Acoustical Society of America through the American Institute of Physics; 1989
   
• "Acoustics" by Leo Beranek; Published by McGraw Hill; 1954 (the edition that I used as an undergraduate engineering student)
   
• "Theoretical Acoustics" by Philip Morse and Uno Ingard; Published by Princenton University Press; 1986