In this work, a mechanical vibrational analysis of an ultrasonic atomizer is carried out to control its atomization mass transfer rate. An ultrasonic atomizer is a device constructed with a piezoelectric ring coupled to a metallic circular thin plate with micro-apertures. The mechanism of mass transfer by atomization is a complex phenomenon to model because of the coupling effect between the fluid transfer and dynamic mechanics controlled by a piezoelectric vibrating ring element. Here, the effect of the micro-apertures shape of the meshed thin plate coupled to a piezoelectric ring during vibration, as well as the resonance frequency modes, are numerically studied using a finite element analysis and compared with theoretical and experimental results. Good correlations between the predicted and experimental results of the resonant frequencies and atomization rates were found.
Soft actuation through droplet evaporation has significantly improved the actuation speed of methods that utilize liquid vaporization. Instead of boiling bulk liquid, this method implements atomization to disperse small droplets into a heater. Due to the large surface area of the droplets, the liquid evaporates much faster even at small temperature changes. However, further analysis is required to maximize the performance of this complex multi-physics method. This study was conducted to provide further insight into the atomizer and how it affects actuation. Numerical simulations were used to inspect the vibration modes and determine how frequency and voltage affect the atomization process. These results were used to experimentally control the atomizer, and the droplet growth on the heater surface was analyzed to study the evaporation process. A cuboid structure was inflated with the actuator to demonstrate its performance. The results show that simply maximizing the atomization rate creates large droplets on the surface of the heater, which slows down the vaporization process. Thus, an optimal atomization rate should be determined for ideal performance.
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