This work is part of a project consisting of the development of an automatic cleaning station for the immersed part of boats. This self‐service station combines ultrasound for washing with a specific water treatment. Since, in this case, displacement of the transducers plus suction of the dirt removed induce circulation, we need to measure the ultrasound activity which reaches the surface despite the disruptions. The goal of this work is to quantify this ultrasound activity. For this purpose, a specific lab‐scale equipment was designed and built. Two methods were implemented for quantification of the ultrasound activity: Particle Image Velocimetry and electrochemical mass transfer measurements. From electrochemical measurements, a parietal velocity was calculated and found to be consistent with velocities obtained from both flow rate and PIV measurements in silent conditions. Moreover, it was found that, even in the presence of a liquid flow perpendicular to the main direction of propagation of ultrasound, contribution of ultrasound to the agitation on the opposite wall remained noticeable. Nevertheless, results showed that the main activity was concentrated in the area close to the transducer. Thus, to maximize the cleaning process, small distances must be maintained between the cleaning tool and the boat hull.
Resonant biosensors are known for their high accuracy and high level of miniaturization. However, their fabrication costs prevent them from being used as disposable sensors and their effective commercial success will depend on their ability to be reused repeatedly. Accordingly, all the parts of the sensor in contact with the fluid need to tolerate the regenerative process which uses different chemicals (H3PO4, H2SO4 based baths) without degrading the characteristics of the sensor. In this paper, we propose a fluidic interface that can meet these requirements, and control the liquid flow uniformity at the surface of the vibrating area. We study different inlet and outlet channel configurations, estimating their performance using numerical simulations based on finite element method (FEM). The interfaces were fabricated using wet chemical etching on Si, which has all the desirable characteristics for a reusable biosensor circuit. Using a glass cover, we could observe the circulation of liquid near the active surface, and by using micro-particle image velocimetry (μPIV) on large surface area we could verify experimentally the effectiveness of the different designs and compare with simulation results.
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