Vacuum Cycle Cavitation (VCC) is a mechanical process that shows promise for cleaning components with capillary structures and complex geometries. The advantages of this method include a lower usage of cleaning solution, less chemical waste, and a small energy requirement. This study is carried out to test a lab-scale vacuum chamber for cleaning soil from capillary tubes using VCC. As capillary tubes act as blind holes, they are very difficult to clean with other cleaning methods. For example, ultrasonic cleaning has difficulty removing contaminants within blind holes or tubes since ultrasonic cavitation does not flush internal surfaces effectively. In this study, to compare ultrasonic and VCC methods, 1% Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) in deionized water was used as the cleaning solution. The capillaries (outer diameter = 1.00 mm, length = 50.00 mm) were soiled with Carbon Black (CB) powder (Jacquard, PearlEx 640 Carbon Black 10 to 60 μm). After the cleaning process, the remaining soil was measured gravimetrically and the percentage removals of CB powder were calculated for each condition. According to the results, the highest percentage removal of CB from capillaries was 82% (VCC with 1% SLS) and lowest percentage removal of CB from capillaries was 11% (45 kHz Ultrasonic with DI water). VCC with DI water removed 67% and ultrasonics with 1% SLS removed 16%. The VCC results required 12 vacuum cycles. Photographs were taken to allow visual comparisons of before and after scenarios. More recent results (not shown in this poster) have achieved over 96% removal.

Comparison of ultrasonic cavitation to vacuum cycle cavitation for cleaning applications

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.