Mechanical effects of laser-induced cavitation bubble on different geometrical confinements for laser propulsion in water

Laser propulsions of six kinds of propelled objects in water and air are studied in this paper. The kinetic energy and momentum coupling coefficients gained by the objects after implementation of single laser pulses are investigated experimentally. It is shown that the propulsion effects are better in water than in air. Both in water and in air, the propulsion effects are better if there is a cavity on the laser irradiated surface of the object, and a hemispherical cavity works better than a 90°-conical cavity. A concept of equivalent reference pressure is proposed in this paper. It means that the asymmetry in the liquid induced by a rigid boundary near a spherical or nonspherical oscillating bubble can be approximated as the perturbation induced by a compressive stress wave passing through a bubble in the infinite static liquid. Thus, the collapse time and the pressure surrounding the nonspherical collapsing bubble can be estimated based on the maximum velocity of the liquid jet tip. Experiments also show that cavitation with oscillations and collapse can be induced at the object–water interface on the outside surface of the object head by the penetrating intensive stress wave and the elastic deformation of the object head. The bulging velocity of the object surface is calculated based on the propagation theory of stress waves at medium interfaces.

Research highlights
► Analyze and optimize the moment transferred to the solid by laser propulsion in a water medium.
► The experimental method gains accurate initial velocities of the propelled objects with limited complexity in the measurement.
► Detailed kinetic energy and momentum coupling coefficients gained by the objects are recorded after implementation of single laser pulses of different pulse energies in air and in water.