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This paper aims to Separation and sorting of biological cells is desirable in many applications for analyzing cell properties, such as disease diagnostics, drugs delivery, chemical processing and therapeutics.

Acoustic energy-based bioparticle separation is a simple, viable, bio-compatible and contact-less technique using, which can separate the bioparticles based on their density and size, with-out labeling the sample particles.

Conventionally available bioparticle separation techniques as fluorescence and immunomagnetic may cause a serious threat to the life of the cells due to various compatibility issues. Moreover, they also require an extra pre-processing labeling step. Contrarily, label-free separation can be considered as an alternative solution to the traditional bio-particle separation methods, due to their simpler operating principles and lower cost constraints. Acoustic based particle separation methods have captured a lot of attention among the other reported label-free particle separation techniques because of the numerous advantages it offers.

This study tries to briefly cover the developments of different acoustic-based particle separation techniques over the years. Unlike the conventional surveys on general bioparticles separation, this study is focused particularly on the acoustic-based particle separation. The study would provide a comprehensive guide for the future researchers especially working in the field of the acoustics, in studying and designing the acoustic-based particle separation techniques.

The study insights a brief theory of different types of acoustic waves and their interaction with the bioparticles is considered, followed by acoustic-based particle separation devices reported till the date. The integration of acoustic-based separation techniques with other methods and with each other is also discussed. Finally, all major aspects like the approach, and productivity, etc., of the adopted acoustic particle separation methods are sketched in this article.

This study aims to understand the influence of megasonic (MS)-assisted agitation on printed circuit boards (PCBs) electroplated using copper (Cu) electrolyte solutions to improve plating efficiencies through enhanced ion transportation.

The impact of MS-assisted agitation on topographical properties of the electroplated surfaces was studied through a design of experiments by measuring surface roughness, which is characterised by values of the parameter Ra as measured by white light phase shifting interferometry and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy.

An increase in Ra from 400 to 760 nm after plating was recorded for an increase in acoustic power from 45 to 450 W. Roughening increased because of micro-bubble cavitation energy and was supported through direct imaging of the cavitation. Current thieving effect by the MS transducer induced low currents, leading to large Cu grain frosting and reduction in the board quality. Current thieving was negated in plating trials through specific placement of transducer. Wavy electroplated surfaces, due to surface acoustic waves, were also observed to reduce the uniformity of the deposit.

The formation of unstable transient cavitation and variation of the topology of the Cu surface are unwanted phenomena. Further plating studies using MS agitation are needed, along with fundamental simulations, to determine how the effects can be reduced or prevented.

This study can help identify manufacturing settings required for high-quality MS-assisted plating and promote areas for further investigation, leading to the development of an MS plating manufacturing technique.

This study quantifies the topographical changes to a PCB surface in response to MS agitation and evidence for deposited Cu artefacts due to acoustic effects.

The capability of microparticle/objects patterning in the three-dimensional (3D) printing structure could improve its performance and functionalities. This paper aims to propose and evaluate a novel acoustic manipulation approach.

A novel method to accumulate the microparticles in the cylindrical tube during the 3D printing process is proposed by acoustically exciting the structural vibration of the cylindrical tube at a specific frequency, and subsequently, focusing the 50-μm polystyrene microparticles at the produced pressure node toward the center of the tube by the acoustic radiation force. To realize this solution, a piezoceramic plate was glued to the outside wall of a cylindrical glass tube with a tapered nozzle. The accumulation of microparticles in the tube and printing structure was monitored microscopically and the accumulation time and width were quantitatively evaluated. Furthermore, the application of such technology was also evaluated in the L929 and PC-12 cells suspended in the sodium alginate and gelatin methacryloyl.

The measured location of pressure and the excitation frequency of the cylindrical glass tube (172 kHz) agreed quite well with our numerical simulation (168 kHz). Acoustic excitation could effectively and consistently accumulate the microparticles. It is found that the accumulation time and width of microparticles in the tube increase with the concentration of sodium alginate and microparticles in the ink. As a result, the microparticles are concentrated mostly in the central part of the printing structure. In comparison to the conventional printing strategy, acoustic excitation could significantly reduce the width of accumulated microparticles in the printing structure (p < 0.05). In addition, the possibility of high harmonics (385 and 657 kHz) was also explored. L929 and PC-12 cells suspended in the hydrogel can also be accumulated successfully.

This paper proves that the proposed acoustic approach is able to increase the accuracy of printing capability at a low cost, easy configuration and low power output.

This paper aims to determine the important role of acoustic wave devices in sensing applications such as automotive applications, industrial applications and commercial applications.

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of acoustic wave technology and highlights an example of one commercial implementation of its technology for sensing application: a commercially available real‐time, online threaded bolt viscosity sensor.

The commercially available viscosity sensor can be readily applied in field operations or installed directly on the equipment for continuous monitoring of viscosity to enable technicians/mechanics to test the oil in minutes.

The paper introduces a new product for the sensing industry.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out an extensive numerical study in order to understand the flow structures and the resulting noise generated by a supersonic impinging jet on a flat plate. One of the parameters varied in this study is the distance between the jet exit plane and the flat plate.

Because of the unsteady nature of the problem a time-dependent computation is carried out using the detached eddy simulation turbulence model. The OVERFLOW 2 CFD code was used with a highly resolved grid and small time steps.

The authors found that as the separation distance increases, the dominant frequencies in the noise spectrum decrease. In addition, the relative strength of the various frequencies to each other changes with changing distance, indicating the changing modes of the jet. The CFD results indicate a strong interaction between the acoustic waves emanating from the impingement plate and the jet plume. This feedback mechanism is responsible for destabilizing the jet shear layer leading to the jet changing modes. The computed near field spectra, convection velocities of the jet vortical structures and mean jet centerline velocity profile are in good agreement with experimental measurements. The results also show very high sound pressure levels all over the impingement plate but especially near the impingement point. These levels, if sustained, are detrimental to both human operators as well as the surrounding structures.

Given the large-scale nature of the computations carried out, it is very costly to run the computations long enough to collect a good, statistically steady time sample to achieve a low frequency bandwidth resolution. Such a long time sample could actually improve the results in terms of frequency resolution and obtained an even better agreement with experiments. Off course there is always the issue of grid resolution as well, but given the good agreement with experiments that the authors obtained, the authors are confident in their results.

The practical implications of the results the authors obtained are significant in that, the authors now know that hybrid RANS-large eddy simulation methods can be used for this complex, unsteady engineering problems. In addition, the results also show the high noise level both on the impingement surface and in the surroundings of the jet. This could have a negative impact on the structural integrity of the flat surface.

Noisy environments are never desirable anywhere especially in places where human operations take place. Therefore, given the high noise levels obtained in the simulations and confirmed by experiments, any human presence around the jet will be harmful to hearing and precautions need to be taken.

This is a physics-based study; i.e. understanding the physical phenomena involved in supersonic jet impingement. Of particular interest is the interaction of the jet shear layer with the acoustic waves emanating from the impingement area. This feedback loop is found to be responsible for intensifying the instability of the jet shear layer.

Limitations in traditional manufacturing methods currently employed in the production of acoustic devices, restricts the development of design led performance improvements. These devices are used to control sound energy and are commonly employed for tailoring room acoustics. solid freeform fabrication allows the production of acoustic structures more complex than traditionally manufactured devices. This paper aims to focus on a novel absorber based on destructive interference, considering performance, design and manufacture.

Selective laser sintering has been used in the investigation of the performance and manufacturing possibilities and limitations of a novel destructive interference absorber. Validation of the absorber performance is benchmarked against a conventional resonant absorber and compared to published results. The implications for acoustic devise design, the advances and limitations in manufacture using solid freeform fabrication techniques and potential applications are discussed.

An original absorber design has been shown to exhibit comparable acoustic absorption to that of a traditional solution. The nature of the geometry of the novel absorber demonstrates that the design flexibility afforded by solid freeform fabrication processes holds potential for applications incorporating new types of acoustic absorber. The use of solid freeform fabrication has demonstrated its potential to the application of acoustics, and has highlighted limitations due to post‐processing, material strength and the precision of the selectivity process.

Solid freeform fabrication techniques enable a new family of specifically engineered acoustic absorbers capable of incorporating performance benefits over conventional absorbers.

This paper focuses on room acoustic applications, the creation of high performance, conformal absorbers, applicable to a wide range of applications within the aerospace, automotive and construction industries, where space, weight and performance are key criteria.

The problem of port and starboard ambiguity will exist when only utilize the vector or scalar parameters. Meanwhile, the amplitude-phase error between the vector and scalar can also cause this problem. In this paper, a compound MEMS vector hydrophone which contains cilia vector microstructure and piezoelectric ceramic tube has been presented to solve the problem. Compared with traditional MEMS vector hydrophone, the compound MEMS vector hydrophone can realize the measurement of sound pressure and vibration velocity simultaneously.

A compound MEMS vector hydrophone has been presented. The unipolar directivity of the combined signal which combine the acoustic pressure and vibration velocity is used to achieve the direction of arrival (DOA). This paper introduced the working principle and the target detection mechanism of the compound vector hydrophone. The amplitude and phase error are analyzed and corrected in the standing wave tube. After that, the authors use beam-forming algorithm to estimate the DOA.

The experimental results in the standing wave tube and the external field verified the vector hydrophone's directional accuracy up to 1 and 5 degrees, respectively.

The research of compound vector hydrophone plays an important role in marine acoustic exploration and engineering applications.

This research provides a basis for MEMS hydrophone directivity theory. The compound vector hydrophone has been applied in the underwater location, with a huge market potential in underwater detection systems.

The modes of fuselage vibration that could be excited by jet‐efflux pressure fields are first discussed, and consideration is given to (he initial acoustic and structural damping of the modes. A simplified theory is presented for the acoustic damping of flat (or nearly flat) panels set in a much larger body, such as a fuselage. Using the results of Part I, an estimate is then made of the effect of Aquaplas damping compound on the vibration stresses, amplitudes and rivet loads of a structure subjected to random jet‐efflux excitation. It is assumed that the structure and the damping compound together constitute a linear system. In the two particular cases considered, the maximum possible reduction of rivet load is found to be about 40 per cent and 70 per cent respectively, and it is concluded that this is insufficient to outweigh the possible adverse effects of certain factors which cannot be introduced into a simplified investigation.

Survey of period infinite element developments The first infinite elements for periodic wave problems, as stated in Part 1, were developed by Bettess and Zienkiewicz, the earliest publication being in 1975. These applications were of ‘decay function’ type elements and were used in surface waves on water problems. This was soon followed by an application by Saini et al., to dam‐reservoir interaction, where the waves are pressure waves in the water in the reservoir. In this case both the solid displacements and the fluid pressures are complex valued. In 1980 to 1983 Medina and co‐workers and Chow and Smith successfully used quite different methods to develop infinite elements for elastic waves. Zienkiewicz et al. published the details of the first mapped wave infinite element formulation, which they went on to program, and to use to generate results for surface wave problems. In 1982 Aggarwal et al. used infinite elements in fluid‐structure interaction problems, in this case plates vibrating in an unbounded fluid. In 1983 Corzani used infinite elements for electric wave problems. This period also saw the first infinite element applications in acoustics, by Astley and Eversman, and their development of the ‘wave envelope’ concept. Kagawa applied periodic infinite wave elements to Helmholtz equation in electromagnetic applications. Pos used infinite elements to model wave diffraction by breakwaters and gave comparisons with laboratory photogrammetric measurements of waves. Good agreement was obtained. Huang also used infinite elements for surface wave diffraction problems. Davies and Rahman used infinite elements to model wave guide behaviour. Moriya developed a new type of infinite element for Helmholtz problem. In 1986 Yamabuchi et al. developed another infinite element for unbounded Helmholtz problems. Rajapalakse et al. produced an infinite element for elastodynamics, in which some of the integrations are carried out analytically, and which is said to model correctly both body and Rayleigh waves. Imai et al. gave further applications of infinite elements to wave diffraction, fluid‐structure interaction and wave force calculations for breakwaters, offshore platforms and a floating rectangular caisson. Pantic et al. used infinite elements in wave guide computations. In 1986 Cao et al. applied infinite elements to dynamic interaction of soil and pile. The infinite element is said to be ‘semi‐analytical’. Goransson and Davidsson used a mapped wave infinite element in some three dimensional acoustic problems, in 1987. They incorporated the infinite elements into the ASKA code. A novel application of wave infinite elements to photolithography simulation for semiconductor device fabrication was given by Matsuzawa et al. They obtained ‘reasonably good’ agreement with observed photoresist profiles. Häggblad and Nordgren used infinite elements in a dynamic analysis of non‐linear soil‐structure interaction, with plastic soil elements. In 1989 Lau and Ji published a new type of 3‐D infinite element for wave diffraction problems. They gave good results for problems of waves diffracted by a cylinder and various three dimensional structures.

To develop a new method for estimation of damage configuration in composite laminate structure using acoustic wave propagation signal and a reduction‐prediction neural network to deal with high dimensional spectral data.

A reduction‐prediction network, which is a combination of an independent component analysis (ICA) and a multi‐layer perceptron (MLP) neural network, is proposed to quantify the damage state related to transverse matrix cracking in composite laminates using acoustic wave propagation model. Given the Fourier spectral response of the damaged structure under frequency band‐selective excitation, the problem is posed as a parameter estimation problem. The parameters are the stiffness degradation factors, location and approximate size of the stiffness‐degraded zone. A micro‐mechanics model based on damage evolution criteria is incorporated in a spectral finite element model (SFEM) for beam type structure to study the effect of transverse matrix crack density on the acoustic wave response. Spectral data generated by using this model is used in training and testing the network. The ICA network called as the reduction network, reduces the dimensionality of the broad‐band spectral data for training and testing and sends its output as input to the MLP network. The MLP network, in turn, predicts the damage parameters.

Numerical demonstration shows that the developed network can efficiently handle high dimensional spectral data and estimate the damage state, damage location and size accurately.

Only numerical validation based on a damage model is reported in absence of experimental data. Uncertainties during actual online health monitoring may produce errors in the network output. Fault‐tolerance issues are not attempted. The method needs to be tested using measured spectral data using multiple sensors and wide variety of damages.

The developed network and estimation methodology can be employed in practical structural monitoring system, such as for monitoring critical composite structure components in aircrafts, spacecrafts and marine vehicles.

A new method is reported in the paper, which employs the previous works of the authors on SFEM and neural network. The paper addresses the important problem of high data dimensionality, which is of significant importance from practical engineering application viewpoint.