Acoustic radiation force and radiation torque beyond particles: Effects of nonspherical shape and Willis coupling

Acoustophoresis mainly deals with the manipulation of subwavelength scatterers in an incident acoustic field. The geometric details of manipulated particles are often neglected by replacing them with equivalent symmetric geometries such as spheres, spheroids, cylinders, or disks. It has been demonstrated that geometric asymmetry, represented by Willis coupling terms, can strongly affect the scattering of a small object; hence neglecting these terms may miss important force contributions. In this work, we present a generalized formalism of acoustic radiation force and radiation torque based on the polarizability tensor, where Willis coupling terms are included to account for geometric asymmetry. Following Gorkov's approach, the effects of geometric asymmetry are explicitly formulated as additional terms in the radiation force and torque expressions. By breaking the symmetry of a sphere along one axis using intrusion and protrusion, we characterize the changes in the force and torque in terms of partial components, associated with the direct and Willis coupling coefficients of the polarizability tensor. We investigate the cases of standing and traveling plane waves and show how the equilibrium positions and angles are shifted by these additional terms. We show that while the contributions of asymmetry to the force are often negligible for small particles, these terms greatly affect the radiation torque. Our presented theory, providing a way of calculating radiation force and torque directly from polarizability coefficients, shows that it is essential to account for shape of objects undergoing acoustophoretic manipulation, with important implications for applications such as the manipulation of biological cells.

Automated summary

Acoustophoresis, which involves manipulating scatterers in an acoustic field, often neglects geometric asymmetry but it has been shown to have significant effects on radiation torque. This work presents a generalized formalism for acoustic radiation force and torque that includes Willis coupling terms to consider the impact of geometric asymmetry. By breaking the symmetry of a sphere, the study investigates the effects of intrusion and protrusion on force and torque, showing systematic changes.