On the pressure of cavitation bubbles

Shock wave emission upon the collapse of a cavitation bubble attached to a rigid wall is investigated using high-speed photography with 200 million frames/s and 5 ns exposure time. At a distance of 68 μm from the bubble wall, the shock pressure is 1.3 ± 0.3 GPa. The shock pressure decays proportionally to r^−1.5 with increasing distance from the bubble. An estimation of the peak pressure at the bubble wall reveals a pressure of about 8 GPa. A major part of the shock wave energy is dissipated within the first 100 μm from the bubble wall.