An Improved Theoretical Model of Acoustic Agglomeration

Abstract

An improved theoretical model is developed to describe the acoustic agglomeration of particles entrained in a gas medium. The improvements to the present theories are twofold: first, wave scattering is included in the orthokinetic interaction of particles and second, hydrodynamic interaction, shown to be an important agglomeration mechanism for certain operation conditions, is incorporated into the model. The influence of orthokinetic and hydrodynamic interactions introduce associated convergent velocities that cause particles to approach each other and collide. The convergent velocities are related with an acoustic agglomeration frequency function (AAFF) through a semi-statistical method. This function is the key parameter for the theoretical simulation of acoustic agglomeration.