A High-Speed Photographic Study of Ultrasonic Cavitation Near Rigid Boundary

This article investigated an existing steady pattern of collapse and rebound (disintegration and aggregation) of cavitation bubbles near rigid boundary in acoustic field. A deformation process of cavitation bubble was accomplished in two acoustic cycles, namely, a spherical bubble collapsed towards the boundary to its minimum volume and then rebounded and grew into a toroidal bubble (or two individual bubbles) in one acoustic cycle, and the toroidal bubble (or two individual bubbles) collapsed towards the center of ring to its minimum volume, and then rebounded into a spherical bubble in the next acoustic cycle. Inertia force plays a key role in the transition between these two states. The microjet produced during the collapse of spherical bubble and the shock wave produced during the collapse of toroidal bubble (or two individual bubbles) impacts the boundary alternately. A cavitation bubble operating in this pattern can thus be an effective corrosion mechanism of rigid boundary.