Numerical simulation of the interaction of wave phase conjugation with bubble clouds

Abstract

The interaction of the Wave Phase Conjugation (WPC) process with bubble cloud dynamics is investigated via numerical modeling in application to bubble size measurements. The WPC simulator by Modarreszadeh and Timofeev (Computers and Fluids 197, 104353) is used as a starting point. In the simulator, a modified version of the high-order Nodal Discontinuous Galerkin method is used for modeling of acoustic wave propagation in the active WPC conjugator and the surrounding linear or non-linear fluid in 2D/axisymmetric domains. The effects of bubble dynamics are incorporated with the help of induced volume fractions. The modified Keller–Miksis model is employed to simulate vibrations of bubbles subjected to acoustic waves. After thorough verification and validation of the numerical scheme and the physical model, the interaction of various bubble clouds, including poly-disperse ones, with the WPC process is examined with the help of some existing and newly suggested descriptive indicators, e.g., the amplification factor and the absolute and relative signal intensities. The results show that signals scattered from bubble-plane clouds, in which the bubbles are non-physically synced, are strong enough to affect the modulation process if the stimulation frequency is close to the natural frequency of bubbles. For more realistic bubble clouds, the modulation process is almost intact. However, conjugate waves do carry some signatures of bubble-cloud dynamics, e.g., signals with frequencies higher than the natural frequency of bubbles are significantly diminished. The study demonstrates that WPC-based techniques have a promising potential to be used for measuring bubble dimensions.