Formation and application of travelling-wave-type Chladni figures by a point-driven vibrating plate

Hong Ting Wu^1*, Fang Tzu Lin¹, Po Wei Lee¹, Pi Hui Tuan¹

¹Department of Physics, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan

* Presenter:Hong Ting Wu, email:timwu000006@gmail.com

Since 18th century, Chladni figures formed by the particle aggregation on the surface of a vibrating thin plates have aroused broad scientific interests because of their diversity. So far, the mechanism of particle motion induced by the interaction with the vibrating plate and the surrounding fluid has been studied at length to offer valuable insights for developing novel particle control techniques. However, apart from observing typical Chladni figures with particles stably located at the nodal lines of stationary vibrating modes of plate, we discover a special kind of flowing-type Chladni figures with particles continuously moving on the plate surface when driving at certain frequency regions. By measuring the resonant frequency spectrum, we find that these specific regions are just in between two adjacent resonant peaks. According to the wave theory, once both resonant modes with different but similar wave functions can be simultaneously excited with a constant relative phase, the response vibrating mode consisting of the two modes will become a travelling-wave state with a time-varying but periodic nodal structures. Supporting by the solid experimental evidences, we have successfully deduced a clear physical explanation for the particle motion based on the proposed theoretical model of point-driven plates. It is believed that these findings can offer valuable information to design a more flexible particle manipulation approach by the travelling surface acoustic wave of the vibrating plates in the near future.

Keywords: Chladni figures, Pattern formation, Vibrating plates, Surface acoustic wave, Particle manipulation