We studied spark-generated cavitation bubbles inside water drops produced in microgravity. High-speed visualizations disclosed unique effects of the spherical and nearly isolated liquid volume. In particular, (1) toroidally collapsing bubbles generate two liquid jets escaping from the drop, and the "splash jet" discloses a remarkable broadening. (2) Shockwaves induce a strong form of secondary cavitation due to the particular shockwave confinement. This feature offers a novel way to estimate integral shockwave energies in isolated volumes. (3) Bubble lifetimes in drops are shorter than in extended volumes in remarkable agreement with herein derived corrective terms for the Rayleigh-Plesset equation.
This paper describes the techniques and physical parameters used to produce stable centimetric water drops in microgravity, and to study single cavitation bubbles inside such drops (Parabolic Flight Campaigns, European Space Agency ESA). While the main scientific results have been presented in a previous paper, we shall herein provide the necessary technical background, with potential applications to other experiments. First, we present an original method to produce and capture large stable drops in microgravity. This technique succeeded in generating quasi-spherical water drops with volumes u…
A brief survey is given of the dynamical phenomena accompanying the collapse of cavitation bubbles. The discussion includes shock waves, microjets and the various ways in which collapsing bubbles produce damage.
Extreme cavitation scenarios such as water column separations in hydraulic systems during transient processes caused by large cavitation bubbles can lead to catastrophic destruction. In the present paper, we study the onset criteria and dynamics of large cavitation bubbles in a tube. A new cavitation number $Ca_2 = {l^*}^{-1} Ca_0$ is proposed to describe the maximum length $L_{\max}$ of the cavitation bubble, where $l^*$ is a non-dimensional length of the water column indicating its slenderness, and $Ca_0$ is the classic cavitation number. Combined with the onset criteria for acceleration-ind…
The dynamics of the cavitation bubble collapse is a fundamental issue for the bubble collapse application and prevention. In present work, the modified forcing scheme for the pseudopotential multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model developed by Li Q. et al. is adopted to develop a cavitation bubble collapse model. In the respects of coexistence curves and Laplace law verification, the improved pseudopotential multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model is investigated. The independence between the kinematic viscosity and the thermodynamic consistency, surface tension is founded. By homo…
Presented here are experiments clarifying how the deformation of cavitation bubbles affects their rebound. Rebound bubbles carry the remaining energy of a bubble following its initial collapse, which dissipates energy mainly through shock waves, jets, and heat. The rebound bubble undergoes its own collapse, generating such violent events anew, which can be even more damaging or effective than at first bubble collapse. However, modeling rebound bubbles is an ongoing challenge because of the lack of knowledge on the exact factors affecting their formation. Here we use single-laser-induced cavita…
The transient process accompanied by extreme acceleration in the conical sections of hydraulic systems (e.g., draft tube, diffuser) can induce large cavitation bubbles both at the closed ends and in the bulk liquid. The collapses of the large cavitation bubbles can cause severe damage to the solid walls. We conduct experiments in the tubes with different conical-frustum shaped closed ends with the `tube-arrest' method and observe bubbles generated at these two locations. For the bubbles generated at the close end of the tube, we propose the onset criteria, consisting of two universal non-dimen…
Cloud cavitation causes nontrivial energy concentration and acoustic shielding in liquid, and its control is a long-standing challenge due to complex dynamics of bubble clouds. We present a new framework to study closed-loop control of cavitation through acoustic feedback. While previous approaches used empirical thresholding, we employ model-based state estimation of coherent bubble dynamics based on theory and high-performance computing. Using a pulsed ultrasound setup, we demonstrate set-point control of the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) to modulate acoustic cavitation near a solid targe…
The present paper is devoted to the 3D numerical study of unsteady cloud cavitation around the CAV2003 benchmark hydrofoil using a passive cavitation controller method called cavitation-bubble generator (CGs). We investigate this passive controller on the hydrofoil surface to affect the whole processes of vaporization, bubble generation and bubble implosion. Firstly we simulate the unsteady cavitating flow around the hydrofoil without CGs using a Partially- averaged Navier Stokes (PANS) method. The turbulence approach is coupled with a mass transfer model which implements to an open source fin…
Hard particle erosion and cavitation damage are two main wear problems that can affect the internal components of hydraulic machinery such as hydraulic turbines or pumps. If both problems synergistically act together, the damage can be more severe and result in high maintenance costs. In this work, a study of the interaction of hard particles and cavitation bubbles is developed to understand their interactive behavior. Experimental tests and numerical simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were performed. Experimentally, a cavitation bubble was generated with an electric spark ne…
In this article, we propose a passive method to control unsteady cloud cavitation on hydrofoils using cavitation-bubble generator (CGs). This method may be used in many engineering applications, in particular in marine and turbomachinery. First, we used a Partially-averaged Navier Stokes (PANS) model for turbulence to simulate the unsteady cavitating flow and validated it based on experimental data. This model was coupled with a mass transfer model and implemented to the open source software package OpenFOAM. Second, the effect of a proper design of CGs on qualitative parameters such as cavita…
A popular party trick is to fill a glass bottle with water and hit the top of the bottle with an open hand, causing the bottom of the bottle to break open. We investigate the source of the catastrophic cracking through the use of high-speed video and an accelerometer. Upon closer inspection, it is obvious that the acceleration caused by hitting the top of the bottle is followed by the formation of bubbles near the bottom. The nearly instantaneous acceleration creates an area of low pressure on the bottom of the bottle where cavitation bubbles form. Moments later, the cavitation bubbles collaps…
Cavitation is a phenomenon in which bubbles form and collapse in liquids due to pressure or temperature changes. Even common tools like a rubber popper can be used to create cavitation at home. As a rubber popper toy slams a solid wall underwater, toroidal cavitation forms. As part of this project, we aim to explain how an elastic shell causes cavitation and to describe the bubble morphology. High-speed imaging reveals that a fast fluid flow between a snapping popper and a solid glass reduces the fluid pressure to cavitate. Cavitation occurs on the popper surface in the form of sheet cavitatio…
Using a nonlinear sound wave equation for a bubbly liquid in conjunction with an equation for bubble pulsation, we predict and experimentally demonstrate the appearance of a gap in the frequency spectrum of a sound wave propagating in a cavitation cloud comprising bubbles. For bubbles with an ambient radius of 100 μm, the calculations revealed that this gap corresponds to the phenomenon of sound wave localization. For bubbles with an ambient radius of 120 μm, this spectral gap relates to a forbidden band of the sound wave. In the experiment, we observed the predicted gap in the frequency spect…
Experimental analysis of cavitation bubble dynamics typically uses optical imaging. However, images are often severely affected by distortions and shadows due to refraction and total reflection at the liquid--gas interface. Here it is shown that optical ray-tracing can be a powerful tool for the analysis process by assisting in the comparison of experiments to numerical two-phase flow simulations. To this end, realistic ray-tracing images are generated from numerical simulations that correspond to the experimental setup. We apply the method on the jetting dynamics of single bubbles collapsing …
We present an analysis of the Rayleigh-Plesset equation for a three dimensional vacuous bubble in water. In the simplest case when the effects of surface tension are neglected, the known parametric solutions for the radius and time evolution of the bubble in terms of a hypergeometric function are briefly reviewed. By including the surface tension, we show the connection between the Rayleigh-Plesset equation and Abel's equation, and obtain the parametric rational Weierstrass periodic solutions following the Abel route. In the same Abel approach, we also provide a discussion of the nonintegrable…
To further understand their nature, micro cavitation bubbles were systematically diffused around the exterior of a test body (tube) fully submerged in a water tank. The primary purpose was to assess the feasibility of applying micro cavitation as a means of depth control for underwater vehicles, mainly but not limited to submarines. Ideally, the results would indicate the use of micro cavitation as a more efficient alternative to underwater vehicle depth control than the conventional ballast tank method. The current approach utilizes the Archimedes' principle of buoyancy to alter the density o…
A Free Sphere Reverses the Rebound Direction of a Near-Wall Cavitation Bubble
School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University（西北工业大学航海学院）；College of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University（哈尔滨工程大学船舶工程学院）
Presented here are observations that demonstrate how the deformation of millimetric cavitation bubbles by a uniform pressure gradient quenches single collapse luminescence. Our innovative measurement system captures a broad luminescence spectrum (wavelength range 300-900 nm) from the individual collapses of laser-induced bubbles in water. By varying the bubble size, driving pressure and the perceived gravity level aboard parabolic flights, we probed the limit from aspherical to highly spherical bubble collapses. Luminescence was detected for bubbles of maximum radii within the previously uncov…
The acoustic nucleation threshold for bubbles trapped in cavities has theoretically been predicted within the crevice theory by Atchley & Prosperetti [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 86, 1065-1084 (1989)]. Here, we determine this threshold experimentally, by applying a single pressure pulse to bubbles trapped in cylindrical nanoscopic pits ("artificial crevices") with radii down to 50 nm. By decreasing the minimum pressure stepwise, we observe the threshold for which the bubbles start to nucleate. The experimental results are quantitatively in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions of Atchle…
In this fluid dynamics video we show acoustic cavitation occurring from pits etched on a silicon surface. By immersing the surface in a liquid, gas pockets are entrapped in the pits which upon ultrasonic insonation, are observed to shed cavitation bubbles. Modulating the driving pressure it is possible to induce different behaviours based on the force balance that determines the interaction among bubbles and the silicon surface. This system can be used for several applications like sonochemical water treatment, cleaning of surfaces with deposited materials such as biofilms.
It is known that gas bubbles on the surface bounding a fluid flow can change the coefficient of friction and affect the parameters of the boundary layer. In this paper, we propose a method that allows us to create, in the near-wall region, a thin layer of liquid filled with bubbles. It will be shown that if there is an oscillating piezoelectric plate on the surface bounding a liquid, then, under certain conditions, cavitation develops in the boundary layer. The relationship between the parameters of cavitation and the characteristics of the piezoelectric plate oscillations is obtained. Possibl…
We present detailed observations of the shock waves emitted at the collapse of single cavitation bubbles using simultaneous time-resolved shadowgraphy and hydrophone pressure measurements. The geometry of the bubbles is systematically varied from spherical to very non-spherical by decreasing their distance to a free or rigid surface or by modulating the gravity-induced pressure gradient aboard parabolic flights. The non-spherical collapse produces multiple shocks that are clearly associated with different processes, such as the jet impact and the individual collapses of the distinct bubble seg…
The inception of cavitation in multibubble cases is studied numerically and theoretically to show that it is different from that in single-bubble cases in several aspects. Using a multibubble model based on the Rayleigh-Plesset equation with an acoustic interaction term, we confirmed that the recently reported suppression of cavitation inception due to the interaction of non-identical bubbles can take place not only in liquid mercury but also in water, and we found that a relatively large bubble can significantly decrease the cavitation threshold pressure of a nearby small bubble. By examining…
The interaction between microbubbles through pressure pulses has been studied to show that it can be a source of cavitation noise. A recent report demonstrated that the acoustic noise generated by a shrimp originates from the collapse of a cavitation bubble produced when the shrimp closes its snapper claw. The recorded acoustic signal contains a broadband noise that consists of positive and negative pulses, but a theoretical model for single bubbles fails to reproduce the negative ones. Using a nonlinear multibubble model we have shown here that the negative pulses can be explained by consider…
Water under tension, as can be found in several systems including tree vessels, is metastable. Cavitation can spontaneously occur, nucleating a bubble. We investigate the dynamics of spon- taneous or triggered cavitation inside water filled microcavities of a hydrogel. Results show that a stable bubble is created in only a microsecond timescale, after transient oscillations. Then, a diffusion driven expansion leads to filling of the cavity. Analysis reveals that the nucleation of a bubble releases a tension of several tens of MPa, and a simple model captures the different time scales of the ex…
Bubbles generated with lasers under confinement have been investigated for their potential use as the driving mechanism for liquid micro-jets in various microfluidic devices, such as needle free jet injectors. Here, we report on the study of bubble formation by a continuous-wave (CW) and a pulsed laser inside an open-ended microfluidic capillary. This results in a direct comparison between bubbles generated by laser sources emitting light in different time scales (ms and ns). The bubble kinetics represents an important parameter because it determines the available kinetic energy for a subseque…
Fast liquid jets, called micro-jets, are produced within cavitation bubbles experiencing an aspherical collapse. Here we review micro-jets of different origins, scales and appearances, and propose a unified framework to describe their dynamics by using an anisotropy parameter $ζ$, representing a dimensionless measure of the liquid momentum at the collapse point (Kelvin impulse). This parameter is rigorously defined for various jet drivers, including gravity and nearby boundaries. Combining theoretical considerations with hundreds of high-speed visualisations of bubbles collapsing near a rigid …
The classical Blake threshold indicates the onset of quasistatic evolution leading to cavitation for gas bubbles in liquids. When the mean pressure in the liquid is reduced to a value below the vapor pressure, the Blake analysis identifies a critical radius which separates quasistatically stable bubbles from those which would cavitate. In this work, we analyze the cavitation threshold for radially symmetric bubbles whose radii are slightly less than the Blake critical radius, in the presence of time-periodic acoustic pressure fields. A distinguished limit equation is derived that predicts the …
Some members of the vegetal kingdom can achieve surprisingly fast movements making use of a clever combination of evaporation, elasticity and cavitation. In this process, enthalpic energy is transformed into elastic energy and suddenly released in a cavitation event which produces kinetic energy. Here we study this uncommon energy transformation by a model system: a droplet in an elastic medium shrinks slowly by diffusion and eventually transforms into a bubble by a rapid cavitation event. The experiments reveal the cavity dynamics over the extremely disparate timescales of the process, spanni…
In this paper, we present a simplified theoretical model based on the method of images that predicts the direction of the microjet produced after the implosion of the cavitation bubble created in between a free interface and rigid wall. Our theoretical predictions have been verified by means of a thorough experimental study in which the distances of the pulsed-laser cavitation bubble to the wall and the free surface are varied in a systematic manner. In addition, we extend the predictions to arbitrary values of the corner angle, $π/(2n)$ with $n$ a natural number. The present analytical soluti…
The primary Bjerknes force is responsible for the quick translational motion of radially oscillating bubbles in a sound field. The problem is classical in the case of small-amplitude oscillations, for which an analytical expression of the force can be easily obtained, and predicts attraction of sub- resonant bubbles by pressure antinodes. But for high-amplitude sound fields, the bubbles undergo large amplitude nonlinear oscillations, so that no analytical expression of the force is available in this case. The bubble dynamics is approximated on physical grounds, following the method of Hilgenfe…
The Challenger disaster and purposeful experiments with liquid hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (Ox) tanks demonstrated that cryogenic H2/Ox fluids always self-ignite in the process of their mixing. Here we propose a cavitation-induced self-ignition mechanism that may be realized under these conditions. In one possible scenario, self-ignition is caused by the strong shock waves generated by the collapse of pure Ox vapor bubble near the surface of the Ox liquid that may initiate detonation of the gaseous H2/Ox mixture adjacent to the gas-liquid interface. This effect is further enhanced by H2/Ox combus…
We present a coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian method to simulate cloud cavitation in a compressible liquid. The method is designed to capture the strong, volumetric oscillations of each bubble and the bubble-scattered acoustics. The dynamics of the bubbly mixture is formulated using volume-averaged equations of motion. The continuous phase is discretized on an Eulerian grid and integrated using a high-order, finite-volume weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme, while the gas phase is modeled as spherical, Lagrangian point-bubbles at the sub-grid scale, each of whose radial evolution is …
Inertial cavitation in soft matter is an important phenomenon featured in a wide array of biological and engineering processes. Recent advances in experimental, theoretical, and numerical techniques have provided access into a world full of nonlinear physics, yet most of our quantitative understanding to date has been centered on a spherically symmetric description of the cavitation process. However, cavitation bubble growth and collapse rarely occur in a perfectly symmetrical fashion, particularly in soft materials. Predicting the onset of dynamically arising, non-spherical instabilities has …
The diffusion-driven growth of a dense cloud of bubbles immersed in a gas-supersaturated liquid is a problem that finds applications in several modern technologies such as solvent-exchange micro-reactors, nanotechnology or the manufacturing of foamy materials. However, under Earth's gravity conditions, these dynamics can only be observed for a very limited time if the cloud is not attached to a surface, due to the action of buoyancy, i.e. of gravity effects. Here, we present experimental observations of the time evolution of dense bubble clouds growing in CO$_2$-supersaturated water in microgr…
Ultrasonic irradiation of liquids, such as water-alcohol solutions, results in cavitation or the formation of small bubbles. Cavitation bubbles are generated in real solutions without the use of optical traps making our system as close to real conditions as possible. Under the action of the ultrasound, bubbles can grow, oscillate, and eventually, they collapse or decompose. We apply the mathematical method of separation of motions to interpret the acoustic effect on the bubbles. While in most situations, the spherical shape of a bubble is the most energetically profitable as it minimizes the s…
In this paper, using an unified approach, estimates are given of the magnitude of the surface tension of water for planar and curved interfaces in the pairwase interaction approximation based on the Lennard-Jones potential. It is shown that the surface tensions of a bubble and droplet have qualitatively different dependences on the curvature of the surface: for the bubble, as the radius of the surface's curvature decreases, the surface tension decreases, whereas it increases on the droplet. The corresponding values of the Tolman corrections are also determined. In addition, it is shown that th…
