Eli Buretea-Bloom

Abstract:

This study is to determine the viscosity of liquids with ultrasonic transducers. Viscosity is important for many industries' quality control. Previous studies have shown that viscosity can be found through ultrasound and the transducers I used can be used to test the speed of sound in air. My objective was "To construct a cost efficient, convenient, and easy to use device for testing the viscosity of liquids using ultrasonics. My plan was to use an Arduino with a compatible ultrasonic sensor. I desoldered the two transducers and attached them on either side of a PVC pipe. The pipe was filled with distilled water and the transmitter played 40 kHz pings, recording the time it took to reach the other one. I would test attenuation by playing a 40 kHz pulse and listening close to the source and far away from the source with an oscilloscope and function generator. Unfortunately, I ran into several problems. First, the transducers leaked and second, the distilled water couldn't stay clean long enough for the experiment to work, and was shorting the transducers out. I were able to fix these issues by epoxy coating the transducers but this also made 3 out of 4 of them not work. I think that this impacted the resonating ability of the transducers.

Awards won: First Place, DoD STEM Leadership Prize, Lemelson Early inventor Prize, and Cullen Blake/Deena Mousa Excellence in Science Award