ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a more or less detailed account of nonlinear phenomena developing on the free surface of a liquid and causing its atomization. Lowering the pressure and creating a vacuum over the liquid-gas interface will reduce the gas solubility and favour the degassing of liquid. Interaction of immiscible liquid phases in an ultrasonic field gives rise to an effect known as emulsification, when one of the immiscible liquids transforms into a phase dispersed over the other liquid. Ultrasonic atomization of liquids was discovered in 1927 by R.W. Wood and A. L. Loomis who employed a glass horn representing a middle-narrowed tube. Since a rigorous theoretical description of such process is sophisticated, relevant works consider a linearized problem of a gas flowing around a liquid jet and its drops. The most detailed experimental studies of the mechanism of ultrasonic degassing of liquids were performed by O. A. Kapustina. In particular, it has been established that ultrasonic emulsification necessitates cavitation.
