SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- SonoBeamer Device Creates Highly Concentrated Beam of Ultrasonic Waves
- Notice Date
- 5/7/2002
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- Contracting Office
- Department of Energy, All Departmental Locations, Savannah River Operations, P. O. Box A, Aiken, SC, 29802
- ZIP Code
- 29802
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-SRS-98-023
- Response Due
- 6/6/2002
- Archive Date
- 6/21/2002
- Point of Contact
- Betty Whitley, Contract Specialist, Phone 803-725-3069, Fax 803-725-8573,
- E-Mail Address
-
betty.whitley@srs.gov
- Description
- This is a special notice issued by Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC), management and operating contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina. WSRC wishes to determine public interest in licensing for commercial applications a new concept of a "sound laser" that creates a highly concentrated beam of ultrasonic waves. The SonoBeamer? device concentrates acoustic energy and emits it as a narrow beam of single frequency sound waves. In recent years, theoretical attention has been paid to the physics of sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (SASER), which is the sound analog of a free electron laser. The SonoBeamer is the first known demonstration of the SASER principle. The SonoBeamer is capable of projecting a beam of directional sound waves into and through a medium, inducing cavitation within the medium along a specified path or at a specific location. The concept is similar to the medical use of ultrasonics to break up kidney stones. The SonoBeamer comprises a tube, filled with an active medium, encased by a housing with one end open and the other end closed by an acoustically reflective wall. Supplied current causes the tube to oscillate, creating pressure waves that propagate toward and away from the center of the tube. These radially directed waves subject bubbles in the active medium to an acoustic radiation force. If the forcing frequency is lower than the resonance frequency of the bubbles, the radiation force drives the bubbles toward the pressure antinodes. The fluctuating pressure waves also cause the bubbles to contract and expand. On expansion, the bubbles emit waves in all directions, generating a wave in the axial direction. By ensuring that the radial waves inside the tube are in phase and the bubbles gather at the antinodes of the axial wave, the wave will undergo constructive addition and result in a concentrated, coherent axial beam. A proof-of-principle SonoBeamer has been designed and fabricated at the Savannah River Site. Tests confirmed the achievement of coherent wave amplification. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has allowed a patent for the SonoBeamer. The SonoBeamer should prove to be an effective device for sonochemistry applications, for cleaning of underwater structures, and for underwater communications. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE SonoBeamer, CONTACT JOSEPH P. DUGAN, BUILDING 773-41A, WESTINGHOUSE SAVANNAH RIVER COMPANY, AIKEN, SC 29808; TELEPHONE (803) 725-0848 or (800) 228-3843; or EMAIL joseph.dugan@srs.gov. Responses to this notice should be received by June 6, 2002. This is not a request for a formal subcontract; it is a request for parties interested in cooperative research and/or licensing opportunities only.
- Record
- SN00072706-W 20020509/020507213151 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
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