Time-Reversal Enhanced Ultrasonic Cleaning

Pipe fouling is a challenging problem in many industrial applications. Established cleaning techniques require that the production is aborted during the cleaning phase. These techniques are unable to focus cleaning power, even though fouling often is localized to certain areas inside the pipeline. This study introduces an effective method to clean fouling inside complex structures. We use finite-element modelling (FEM) -based time-reversed signals to focus ultrasound power onto a predetermined pipe residing inside a Plexiglas container. We compare the cleaning effect obtained by this method with the cleaning obtained with standard ultrasound cleaning when using the same input electric power and cleaning time. Our results indicate that the proposed time-reversal based technique removes more fouling compared to when using the standard technique. Moreover, we demonstrate ability to relocate the focus including changing the target from one pipe to another one inside the container