Evaluation and interpretation of bubble size distributions in pulsed megasonic fields

Abstract

The occurrence of acoustic cavitation is incorporating a multitude of interdependent effects that strongly depend on the bubble size. Therefore, bubble size control would be beneficial for biological and industrial processes that rely on acoustic cavitation. A pulsed acoustic field can result in bubble size control and the repeated dissolution and reactivation (“recycling”) of potentially active bubbles. As a consequence, a pulsed field can strongly enhance cavitation activity. In this paper, we present a modified methodology for the evaluation of the active bubble size distribution by means of a combination of cavitation noise measurements and ultrasonic pulsing. The key component of this modified methodology is the definition of an upper size limit, below which bubbles—in between subsequent pulses—have to dissolve, in order to be sustainably recycled. This upper limit makes it possible to explain and link the enhancement of cavitation activity to a bubble size distribution. The experimentally determined bubble size distributions for different power densities are interpreted in the frame of numerical calculations of the oscillatory responses of the bubbles to the intermittent driving sound field. The distributions are found to be shaped by the size dependent interplay between bubble pulsations, rectified diffusion, coalescence, and the development of parametrically amplified shape instabilities. Also, a phenomenological reactivation-deactivation model is proposed to explain and quantify the observed enhancement of cavitation activity under pulsed, with respect to continuous sonication. In this model, the pulse-duration determines the magnitude of the reactivation of partially dissolved bubbles and the deactivation of activated bubbles by coalescence. It is shown that the subsequent recycling of previously active bubbles leads to an accumulation of cavitation activity, which saturates after a certain number of pulses. The model is fitted to the experimental data for the cavitation activity measured by means of ultraharmonic cavitation noise as a function of the pulse duration. Measurements of the development of the cavitation noise and sonochemiluminescence over a sequence of pulses for different pulse durations and separations confirm the general validity of the proposed model. Size distributions of the larger, inactive bubbles that were extracted from High-speed images of the cavitation field, relate the deactivation of activated bubbles by coalescence to the increase in volume concentrations of larger bubbles as observed by others.