Bubble and bubble cloud dynamics

Abstract

Cavitation bubbles are formed from small air bubbles, so-called nuclei, with the surrounding pressure reduction caused by the flow, and then, the bubbles shrink and collapse with the surrounding pressure rise. Such volumetric changes of bubbles are calculated in detail and it is found that they are significantly influenced by the internal phenomena, such as thermal diffusion, mist formation due to a homogeneous condensation, mass diffusion between vapor and noncondensable gas, heat and mass transfer through the bubble wall. The structure in cavitating flow interacts with the cavitation bubbles, and those bubbles form a cloud cavitation. It is well known that cloud cavitation is one of the most destructive forms. The behavior of bubble clouds is simulated numerically. An inward propagating shock wave is formed during the collapse of the bubble cloud, and the shock wave and its precursor are focused at the cloud center area. These phenomena associate high frequency pressure oscillations and violent bubble collapses. Those bubble collapses emit high pressure peaks, which are several hundreds times larger than that of a single bubble collapse.