title: Investigations on the heating effect of PE-LD induced by high-intensity focused ultrasound.
abstract: High-intensity focused ultrasound is widely applied in tissue treatment as well as for heating of solid polymer materials. Previous studies investigating the heating effect in polymer materials utilized sound transmission through water or other fluids at low HIFU power. In this study, the ultrasonic transducer possesses a solid sound conductor made of aluminum and a high HIFU power of above 100W was applied to heat solid PE-LD samples. Temperature measurements were performed by calibrated non-invasive infrared thermal imaging. A strong heating effect with heating above melting temperature and evaporation temperature within less than 1s of irradiation was observed. Furthermore, the acoustic coupling defined by the force applied by the ultrasonic applicator to the polymer material was found to be fundamental to induce the heating effect. This investigation reveals HIFU for new applications in the field of polymer processing.
authors.affiliation: Dresden University of Technology, Chair of Processing Machines/Processing Technology, Bergstraße 120, 01069 Dresden, Germany. Electronic address: lukas.oehm@tu-dresden.de.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oehm
authors.affiliation: Dresden University of Technology, Chair of Processing Machines/Processing Technology, Bergstraße 120, 01069 Dresden, Germany. Electronic address: sascha.bach@tu-dresden.de.
authors.forename: Sascha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bach
authors.affiliation: Dresden University of Technology, Chair of Processing Machines/Processing Technology, Bergstraße 120, 01069 Dresden, Germany. Electronic address: jens-peter.majschak@tu-dresden.de.
authors.forename: Jens-Peter
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Majschak
keywords: Heating effect; High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU); Infrared thermography; Polymer material