Cavitation Bubble Dynamics and Noise Production

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of some recent observations of the interaction between individual traveling cavitation bubbles and the nearly solid surface. These reveal a complex micro-fluid-mechanics associated with the interaction of the bubble with the boundary layer, the surface and the large pressure gradients exterior to the boundary layer which normally occur in the vicinity of a minimum pressure point. The details are important because they affect how the bubble collapses and therefore influence the noise produced and the damage potential of the cavitating flow. We present data showing how the noise from an individual event can be affected by these interaction effects. Since the scaling of cavitation phenomena is always an important issue we also describe the results of some experiments carried out to investigate the scaling of these interaction effects.