Study on heat pipe heat dissipation of high-power ultrasonic transducer

In order to solve the problems of frequency shift, efficiency decline and life shortening caused by temperature rise in the working process of high-power ultrasonic transducer, the technology of heat pipe is employed for enhancing heat dissipation of the ultrasonic transducer. A new type of high-power transducer with heat pipe heat dissipation (HPUT) is proposed in this study. The heat pipe radiator adopts the form of a copper-water-composite wick, and installs straight fins on the condensation section to enhance heat dissipation. Six heat pipe radiators are embedded in the front cover plate of the transducer close to the piezoelectric ceramic and evenly arranged along the circumference of the transducer. The vibration characteristics, radiated sound field characteristics and heat dissipation characteristics of the HPUT are compared with those of traditional Langevin ultrasonic transducer (TLUT) through simulations and experiments. Results manifest that compared with the TLUT, the HPUT has much lower operation temperature (reduced by 60% in this study), much smaller resonant frequency shift (reduced by 75% in this study) and the higher vibration amplitude (increased by 25% in this study). This study will contribute to the development of high-power ultrasonic transducer which has potential application value in many industrial fields.