Effects of liquid compressibility on bubble-bubble interactions between oscillating bubbles

Abstract

The mutual interaction between cavitation bubbles plays an important role in the physical processes of cavitation. In this paper, a complete model is developed for modelling the mutual interaction between cavitation bubbles with the effects of liquid compressibility fully included. It is found that the liquid compressibility is an important parameter in the determination of the direction of the force (the attraction or repulsion force), as well as the magnitude of the force. The influences of the liquid compressibility on the mutual interaction force can be categorized into three terms: the first is a new term added on the mutual interaction force in incompressible liquids and this term will vanish if the sizes of two bubbles are equal, the second is the radiation damping term, the third one can be considered as a correction of the mutual interaction force in incompressible liquids with a coefficient and this correction will be prominent for small bubbles and a high ambient pressure.