Investigation on the cavitation bubble collapse and the movement characteristics near spherical particles based on Weiss theorem

In this paper, the cavitation bubble dynamics near two spherical particles of the same size are investigated theoretically and experimentally. According to the Weiss theorem, the flow characteristics and the Kelvin impulse are obtained and supported by the sufficient experimental data. In terms of the initial bubble position, the bubble size and the distance between the two particles, the collapse morphology and the movement characteristics of the bubble are revealed in detail. The main findings include: (1) Based on a large number of experimental results, it is found that the Kelvin impulse theoretical model established in this paper can effectively predict the movement characteristics of the cavitation bubble near two particles of the same size. (2) When the initial bubble position is gradually away from the particles along the horizontal symmetry axis near two particles of the same size, the movement distance of the bubble centroid in the first period increases first and then decreases. (3) When the initial position of the bubble centroid is at the asymmetric position near the two particles, the movement direction of the bubble centroid is biased towards the particle closer to the bubble, but not towards the center of this particle.     

Collapsing dynamics of a laser-induced cavitation bubble near the edge of a rigid wall

In the present paper, the collapsing dynamics of a laser-induced cavitation bubble near the edge of a rigid wall is experimentally investigated with a high-speed photography system. For a symmetrical setup, the two primary control parameters of the bubble collapsing behavior include the equivalent maximum bubble radius and the distance between the bubble and the edge of the rigid wall. Based on the bubble interface deformation during the collapsing process, three typical cases are identified for the categorization of the phenomenon with the influences of the parameters revealed. Through a quantitative analysis of the obtained high-speed photos, the motions of the bubble interface in different directions are given together with the calculations of the bubble centroid. The primary findings of the present paper could be summarized in terms of the bubble-edge distance as follows. When the bubble is close to the edge, the movement of the bubble interface near the edge will be restricted with a clear neck formation in the middle part of the bubble. For this case, the edge could delay the bubble collapsing time up to 22% of the Rayleigh collapsing time. When the bubble is of the medium distance to the edge, the differences of the expansion or shrinkage of the bubble interface among different directions will be reduced with an olive-shaped bubble formed during the collapsing process. For this range of parameters, the bubble moves rapidly toward the edge especially during the final collapsing stage. When the bubble is far away from the edge, the bubble will be a nearly spherical one.     

Study on the spatial distribution of the liquid temperature near a cavitation bubble wall

A simple new model of the spatial distribution of the liquid temperature near a cavitation bubble wall (T_li) is employed to numerically calculate T_li. The result shows that T_li is almost same with the ambient liquid temperature (T₀) during the bubble oscillations except at strong collapse. At strong collapse, T_li can increase to about 1510 K, the same order of magnitude with that of the maximum temperature inside the bubble, which means that the chemical reactions occur not only in gas-phase inside the collapsing bubble but also in liquid-phase just outside the collapsing bubble. Four factors (ultrasonic vibration amplitude, ultrasonic frequency, the surface tension and the viscosity) are considered to study their effects for the thin liquid layer. The results show that for the thin layer, the thickness and the temperature increase as the ultrasonic vibration amplitude rise; conversely, the thickness and the temperature decrease with the increase of the ultrasonic frequency, the surface tension or the viscosity.     

Experimental investigation on the effects of the standoff distance and the initial radius on the dynamics of a single bubble near a rigid wall in an ultrasonic field

Bubble behaviors near a boundary in an ultrasonic field are the fundamental forms of acoustic cavitation and of substantial importance in various applications, such as industry cleaning, chemical engineering and food processing. The effects of two important factors that strongly affect the dynamics of a single acoustic cavitation bubble, namely, the initial bubble radius and the standoff distance, were investigated in this work. The temporal evolution of the bubble was recorded using high speed microphotography. Meanwhile, the time of bubble collapse and the characteristics of the liquid jets were analyzed. The results demonstrate that the intensity of the acoustic cavitation, which is characterized by the time of bubble collapse and the liquid jet speed, reaches the optimum level under suitable values of the initial bubble radius and the normalized standoff distance. As the initial bubble radius and the normalized standoff distance increase or decrease from the optimal values, the time of the bubble collapse increases, and the first liquid jet’s speed decreases substantially, whereas the speeds of the second and third liquid jets exhibit no substantial changes. These results on bubble dynamics in an ultrasonic field are important for identifying or correcting the mechanisms of acoustic cavitation and for facilitating its optimization and application.