On the Acoustic Radiation Force Affecting Two Liquid Drops Located in the Wave Field

Abstract

A system of initially immobile spherical liquid drops placed in another liquid in the field of a propagating acoustic wave is considered. The acoustic radiation force acting on each spherical liquid drop is determined as the function of the incident wave frequency, making use of the solution of a problem of plane harmonic wave scattering on a system of two spherical bodies. The problem is solved by the variable separation method. To satisfy the boundary conditions on spherical surfaces, the expansion of the incident and reflected wave potentials over the spherical wave functions are used. Required constants in the solution are calculated from an infinite system of the algebraic equations, which is solved by a truncation method. It is established that the value of the acoustic radiation force affecting each liquid drop depends significantly on the densities, speed of sound in the outer and internal liquid, as well as on the distance between drops. It is also found that the acoustic radiation force has the same or opposite direction as the incident sound wave depending on its frequency. As result, at different frequencies, the liquid drops can start moving towards or further away from each other.