Narrow Band Solid-Liquid Composite Arrangements: Alternative Solutions for Phononic Crystal-Based Liquid Sensors

Sensors (Basel). 2019 Aug 29;19(17):3743. doi: 10.3390/s19173743.

Abstract

Periodic elastic composite structures attract great attention. They offer the ability to design artificial properties to advance the control over the propagation of elastic/acoustic waves. In previous work, we drew attention to composite periodic structures comprising liquids. It was shown that the transmission spectrum of the structure, specifically a well-isolated peak, follows the material properties of liquid constituent in a distinct manner. This idea was realized in several liquid sensor concepts that launched the field of phononic crystal liquid sensors. In this work we introduce a novel concept-narrow band solid-liquid composite arrangements. We demonstrate two different concepts to design narrow band structures, and show the results of theoretical studies and results of experimental investigations that confirm the theoretical predictions. This work extends prior studies in the field of phononic crystal liquid sensors with novel concepts and results that have a high potential in a field of volumetric liquid properties evaluation.

Keywords: acoustic band structure; acoustic transmission spectra; detection of fluid properties; liquid sensor; periodic composite structure; phononic crystal sensor; solid-liquid interaction; speed of sound.