Design Acoustic Levitation

Design and validate an acoustic levitation system by determining the acoustic radiation pressure required to balance gravity, selecting transducer and reflector geometry to form a stable standing wave, computing the positions and trapping strength of pressure nodes, and verifying that the trapped object is stable against lateral and axial perturbations.

When to Use

• Designing a contactless sample holder for chemical or biological experiments
• Building an acoustic levitation demonstrator for education or outreach
• Evaluating whether a given object can be levitated acoustically (size, density, and frequency constraints)
• Selecting between single-axis (transducer-reflector) and phased array configurations
• Calculating the node positions and trapping forces for a given transducer frequency and geometry
• Extending a single-axis levitator to multi-axis manipulation using phased arrays

Inputs

• Required: Object properties (mass, density, radius or characteristic dimension, compressibility if known)
• Required: Target levitation medium (air, water, inert gas) with its density and speed of sound
• Optional: Available transducer frequency (default: 40 kHz, common for hobbyist and lab systems)
• Optional: Transducer power or voltage rating