Utilizing differential interferometry for spatially resolved pressure field measurements of laser-induced cavitation

Abstract

In the present study, differential interferometry and shadowgraphy are combined to determine cavitation-induced pressure fields and corresponding bubble dynamics during laser-induced single-bubble cavitation. An evaluation method is presented that allows to reconstruct the pressure distribution from interference images with high accuracy. The minimum reconstruction accuracy of the pressure amplitudes with the presented method is determined from synthetic data sets for an angular range of $${8.9}^{\circ }\le \varphi \le {63.0}{^{\circ }}$$ to be $${96.2}{\%}$$ . On the basis of statistically evaluated data, the energy budget of single cavitation bubbles $$E_\mathrm{b}$$ and the corresponding pressure wave energy $$E_\mathrm{s}$$ could be determined also for weak pressure wave amplitudes in the order of $${6}{\hbox { bar}}$$ .