La determinación del coeficiente de reflexión de ondas transversales ultrasónicas en la interfaz sólido-líquido es una técnica que ha sido usada para la medición de las propiedades viscoelásticas de líquidos. Una característica interesante de la técnica es la pequeña distancia recorrida por las ondas transversales dentro del fluido, antes de ser completamente atenuadas, permitiendo la medición con una película muy delgada de líquido, del orden de algunos micrómetros. Esta característica, además de la conocida tendencia de las sustancias oleosas a adherirse a superficies, puede ser usada para la detección de contaminantes oleosos en agua. Este trabajo propone el uso de la técnica de reflexión de ondas transversales en el rango ultrasónico para la detección de contaminantes oleosos en agua y discute las bases teóricas y experimentales relacionadas. Resultados experimentales preliminares muestran que es posible la detección de la presencia de aceite automotriz SAE 40 en agua en proporciones menores a 0,5% en volumen.

The determination of the complex reflection coefficient of ultrasonic shear-waves at the solid-liquid interface is a technique employed for the measurement of the viscoelastic properties of liquids. An interesting property of the measurement technique is the very small penetration depth of the shear-waves into the liquid sample, which permits measurements with liquid films of some micrometers thick. This property, along with the adhesion of oily substances to surfaces, can be used for the detection of oily contaminants in water. In this work, the employment of the ultrasonic shear-wave reflection technique to the detection of oily contaminants in water is proposed and the theoretical and experimental concepts involved are discussed. Preliminary experimental results show the measurement technique can detect SAE 40 automotive oil in water in volume proportions less than 0.5%.

The impulse response of the velocity potential and the discrete representation methods were used in order to model the acoustic field radiated by ultrasonic transducers and arrays. The first method deals with the calculation of the exact impulse response, in which solutions are possible only for simple geometries, such as the circular piston. The second method is an approximated solution based on the discretization of the acoustic aperture in small elementary areas, each of them radiating a spherical wave. By using circular transducers, which can be considered circular pistons, many simulations comparing the methods were carried out. The relation between the computational cost and the precision was analyzed, thus establishing the time and space discretization levels. The simulations were made using the Matlab software and the results were compared to experimental measurements showing good agreement. The experimental results were obtained using a scanning system. The acoustic field radiated from a 1 MHz circular transducer was measured as well as a 3.5 MHz array of 16 elements both immersed in water. The acoustic field radiated by the array was simulated and measured with focalization on a radius of 30 mm with deflections of 0º and 20º.

Este trabalho apresenta uma célula de medição de viscosidade dinâmica de líquidos usando a conversão de modo de ondas longitudinais para ondas de cisalhamento e vice-versa. O método baseia-se na medição do coeficiente de reflexão complexo de uma onda de cisalhamento incidindo numa interface sólido-líquido. As ondas refletidas na interface sólido-líquido são medidas no modo longitudinal por uma membrana de PVDF de grande abertura, para evitar erros devido ao efeito da difração. Foi desenvolvida uma estratégia para a medição de viscosidade pelo método de múltiplas reflexões relativas que possibilita medir a velocidade de propagação no sólido. Medições da viscosidade de óleos automotivos (SAE90 e SAE140) e de um produto alimentício líquido (glucose de milho) foram feitas no intervalo entre 1 e 5MHz. Os resultados experimentais mostram a dependência da viscosidade dinâmica com a freqüência da onda de cisalhamento.

This work presents a cell to measure the dynamic viscosity of liquids using a wave mode conversion from longitudinal to shear waves and vice-versa. The method is based on the measurement of the complex reflection coefficient of shear waves at a solid-liquid interface. The reflected waves at the solid-liquid interface are measured in the longitudinal mode by a large aperture PVDF membrane to avoid errors due to the acoustic diffraction. A viscosity measurement strategy was developed based on the relative multiple reflection method that guarantees the measurement of the propagation velocity for the solid. Measurements of the viscosity of automotive oils (SAE90 and SAE140) and a kind of corn glucose were made in the range of 1 to 5MHz. The experimental results show the dependency of the dynamic viscosity with the frequency of the shear wave.