Acoustic streaming measurements in standing wave resonator using Particle Image Velocimetry

•Acoustic streaming inside a 7 m-long resonator was studied with PIV.•The Rayleigh cells developed within the acoustic resonator at the resonance.•The numerical model was validated by the results of our experiment.

This paper experimentally investigates the measurement of acoustic streaming in a 7 m long-standing wave air-filled acoustic resonator. One can describe the acoustic streaming as a second-order steady flow, which is superimposed on the dominant acoustic velocity. It is induced by the nonlinearities of the acoustic propagation inside the resonator. The exploration of the acoustic velocity field by the synchronized PIV (stands for Particle Image Velocimetry) technique enabled to highlight and quantify these secondary flows. The PIV measurements of the acoustic velocity fields at different phases over the excitation signal period gave information on streaming profiles and the post processing applied allowed plotting the acoustic velocity over time. These results were compared to the outcome of a 2D numerical study performed with the commercial software Fluent, where good agreements were found. It indicates the ability of this method to accurately measure second order steady flow variations of the acoustic velocity field.