Acoustic dilatometer

Class 1-Thermal Methods. These utilize calorimeters [27,29], thermocouples or absorption probes [32,49], and the acoustic dilatometer [30,31]. 

At the point at which the cavitation threshold has been passed, the generation of cavitation bubbles results in a sudden increase of the volume of the sonicated liquid. This volume change can be detected and measured with a system similar to Mikhailov s acoustic dilatometer, by measuring the liquid rise in a capillary tube connected to the sonicated vessel [119,142-144]. This method can be very sensitive and is a good and simple way to determine the cavitation threshold. In principle, it could also be used for quantitative measurements but it suffers from two drawbacks. First, it does not distinguish between gaseous cavitation, vaporous cavitation, and dead bubbles which may become occluded at surfaces. Second, part of the liquid rise in the capillary might also be the result of expansion caused by the temperature increase which accompanies sonication of the liquid. 

Development of specific penetration devices, either incorporated into the CPT or individually used, have further expanded the capabilities of penetration tests, resulting in subsequent refinement of soil profiling. They include the dilatometer (DMT [Marchetti, 1975,1980 Marchetti and Crapps, 1981 Lutenegger, 1988]), seismic cone (Campanella and Robertson, 1984 Campanella et al., 1986 Baldi et al., 1988), acoustic cone (Villet et al., 1981, Massarch, 1986), lateral stress cone and lateral stress cell (measurement of lateral stress on the cone shaft—Morrisson, 1984 Huntsman, 1985 Huntsman et al., 1986 Baligh et al., 1988), vibratory cone (evaluation of susceptibility of cohesionless soils to liquefaction— Sasaki et al., 1984), and pressure-cone (Jezequel et al., 1982 Hughes and Robertson, 1985 Whiters et al., 1986). 

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