Investigação numérica de levitação acústica de campo próximo.

Abstract

Levitation techniques have been attracting the attention of researchers in the last years, once they can be applied in the transportation, handling, and storage of components that cannot be contaminated by mechanical contact. Levitation is a process in which a force opposite to gravity is generated aiming to balance it without contact. Levitation can be achieved from electrical, magnetic, optical, aerodynamic, or acoustic forces. The present work is dedicated to numerical analysis of the near-field acoustic levitation approach. In this case, the object is levitated due to forces generated by a pressure field produced from the vibration of a driving surface. The pressure field is obtained by solving the Reynolds equation. The influence that some parameters can exert on the pressure field is evaluated, such as the vibration amplitude of the driving surface and the so-called squeeze film number. In this paper, these parameters were analyzed in terms of the pressure amplitude that can be generated and the capacity of mass that can be levitated. This analysis was done in terms of the pressure range that can be generated, and the mass capacity that can be levitated. It was applied Finite Differences Centered on field obtention and was observed pressure values capable of levitating loads of hundreds of kilograms. Key-