Abstract:
To address the issue of sample instability in single levitation methods used to simulate microgravity environments, this paper introduced a mixed levitation system that combined air levitation with ultrasonic standing wave levitation. The system employed air levitation to counteract gravitational forces in the vertical direction and utilized the acoustic radiation pressure of an ultrasonic standing wave field to ensure stability perpendicular to gravity. Finite element analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of key component structural parameters on the axial air-bearing support force and the maximum acoustic pressure within the ultrasonic standing wave field. The analysis revealed that the axial air float support force, provided by a cone-angle diffusion nozzle, decreases with increasing spherical throat diameter ratio and increases rapidly before stabilizing with larger nozzle diffusion angles. The maximum acoustic pressure in the ultrasonic standing wave field initially increases with the diameter of the reflection end and the radius of the concave spherical surface, followed by a decrease. Melting process experiments under mixed suspension demonstrate the system’s effectiveness in maintaining sample stability.