EMAT enhanced dispersion of particles in liquid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9504973-B2
Application number	US-201313827034-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

Particulate matter is dispersed in a fluid material. A sample including a first material in a fluid state and second material comprising particulate matter are placed into a chamber. The second material is spatially dispersed in the first material utilizing EMAT force. The dispersion process continues until spatial distribution of the second material enables the sample to meet a specified criterion. The chamber and/or the sample is electrically conductive. The EMAT force is generated by placing the chamber coaxially within an induction coil driven by an applied alternating current and placing the chamber and induction coil coaxially within a high field magnetic. The EMAT force is coupled to the sample without physical contact to the sample or to the chamber, by another physical object. Batch and continuous processing are utilized. The chamber may be folded within the bore of the magnet. Acoustic force frequency and/or temperature may be controlled.

First claim

We claim:

1. An electromagnetic acoustic transduction (EMAT) system for dispersing particles in a fluid material, the system comprising:
an electrically conductive chamber that is configured to hold a sample as it is mixed by EMAT force, the sample including a first material in a fluid state and a second material that includes particulate matter;
a primary coil wrapped around the chamber, wherein the chamber and the primary coil are coaxial;
a secondary coil comprising a bore of a magnet, wherein the chamber and the primary coil are situated within the secondary coil in the bore of the magnet and the secondary coil is coaxial with at least a portion of the chamber and a corresponding portion of the primary coil;
wherein the primary coil, the secondary coil and the electrically conductive chamber generate the EMAT force that spatially disperses the second material in at least a portion of the first material until a spatial distribution of the second material in the at least a portion of the first material enables a quality of the sample to meet specified criteria.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first material comprises one or more substances and the second material comprises one or more substances.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force is generated by driving the primary coil with an applied alternating current and inducing by the secondary coil a magnetic field with a magnitude of at least 1 Tesla, the magnetic field induced by the secondary coil being coaxial with at least the portion of the chamber and the corresponding portion of the primary coil.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the magnetic field with a magnitude of at least one Tesla is induced by the secondary coil, and one or both of the primary coil and the secondary coil comprise:
a uniform number of turns per unit length;
a varied number of turns per unit length; or
a combination of a uniform number of turns per until length and a varied number of turns per unit length.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force is coupled to the sample without physical contact to the sample or to the chamber by another physical object which enables the coupling.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein a batch of the sample is sealed in the chamber for batch processing of the spatially dispersing the second material in at least a portion of the first material utilizing the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first material flows into the chamber and the second material is added to the first material as it flows through the chamber for continuously processing of the spatially dispersing the second material in at least a portion of the first material utilizing the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the primary coil is wrapped around the chamber and the chamber is folded within the secondary coil in the bore of the magnet, wherein the primary coil and the secondary coil are utilized in generating the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein one or both of a frequency of the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force and a temperature of the sample or chamber are automatically controlled utilizing a feedback system.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein one or more insertion units comprising one or both of the chamber and the primary coil configured in a wrapped pattern relative to the chamber, are fabricated using 3-D printing.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the chamber comprises a cylindrical shape and is positioned coaxially inside the primary coil and an alternating current is applied to the primary coil,
the applied alternating current induces an alternating magnetic field coaxially directed relative to the primary coil;
the induced alternating magnetic field induces an alternating current density circumferentially directed relative to the chamber wherein a tangent of the induced alternating current density is perpendicular to the coaxially directed alternating magnetic field.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the chamber and the primary coil are positioned coaxially within a coaxially directed static magnetic field induced by the secondary coil, wherein the coaxially directed static magnetic field induced by the secondary coil is higher magnitude than the alternating magnetic field induced by the primary coil;
the induced alternating current density circumferentially directed relative to the chamber interacts with the coaxially directed static magnetic field induced by the secondary coil, which generates an alternating force perpendicular to the coaxially directed static magnetic field and perpendicular to the tangent of the induced alternating current density circumferentially directed relative to the chamber; and
the generated alternating force couples to the sample and disperses the first material in the second material.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the particulate matter goes into solution or remains intact after the spatially dispersing the second material in at least a portion of the first material.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more other stirring methods are utilized to spatially disperse the second material in at least a portion of the first material before or after utilizing the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force to spatially disperse the second material in at least a portion of the first material.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein a master alloy, base metal or base material comprising a concentration of the particulate matter is utilized to deliver the second material to the first material.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein a frequency of the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force is adjusted based on a resonant frequency of a system comprising one or more of the primary coil, the chamber and the sample.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein ultrasonic heating is applied to the sample in combination with the electromagnetic acoustic transduction force to adjust a microstructure of the sample.

18. An electromagnetic acoustic transduction (EMAT) system for dispersing particles in a fluid material, the system comprising:
a chamber that is configured to hold a sample as it is mixed by EMAT force, the sample including a first material in a fluid state and a second material that includes particulate matter, and the chamber in combination with the sample comprising electrically conductive material;
a primary coil wrapped around the chamber, wherein the chamber and the primary coil are coaxial;
a secondary coil comprising a bore of a magnet, wherein the chamber and the primary coil are situated within the secondary coil in the bore of the magnet and the secondary coil is coaxial with at least a portion of the chamber and a corresponding portion of the primary coil;
wherein the primary coil, the secondary coil and the electrically conductive material of the chamber in combination with the sample, generate the EMAT force that spatially disperses the second material in at least a portion of the first material until a spatial distribution of the second material in the at least a portion of the first material enables a quality of the sample to meet a specified criteria.

Assignees

• Ut Battelle Llc

Inventors

• Kisner Roger A
• Rios Orlando
• Melin Alexander M
• Ludtka Gerard Michael
• Ludtka Gail Mackiewicz
• Wilgen John B

Classifications

• B01F11/02

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F11/0291 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F13/0006

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F3/1242

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F11/0241

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic