Case Study: Argonne National Laboratory achieves containerless acoustic levitation for high-purity pharmaceuticals with COMSOL Multiphysics

Floating on Sound Waves with Acoustic Levitation

Argonne National Laboratory set out to revolutionize pharmaceutical manufacturing by developing an acoustic levitator that can mix and process drugs containerlessly to produce high‑purity amorphous compounds. To design and optimize the levitator — including transducer behavior, foam edge geometry, and the balance of acoustophoretic, drag, gravity and surface‑tension forces — the team turned to Comsol, using COMSOL Multiphysics with the Acoustics Module, Particle Tracing Module and CFD tools to model the full multiphysics problem.

Using Comsol’s simulation suite, Argonne modeled transducer material and frequency effects, iterated foam geometries, and ran FSI/level‑set simulations to control droplet formation and shape. The simulated acoustic fields and droplet behavior matched high‑speed synchrotron x‑ray experiments at APS, enabling the team to achieve spherical, controllable levitated droplets (22 kHz standing waves) and to refine parameters that govern droplet size, concentration and stability — a validated design advance that supports cleaner, more bioavailable pharmaceutical production.

Argonne National Laboratory

Kamlesh Suthar

Argonne National Laboratory