Characterizing the cavitation development and acoustic spectrum in various liquids

A bespoke cavitometer that measures acoustic spectrum and is capable of operating in a range of temperatures (up to 750 °C) was used to study the cavitation behaviour in three transparent liquids and in molten aluminium. To relate these acoustic measurements to cavitation development, the dynamics of the cavitation bubble structures was observed in three Newtonian, optically transparent liquids with significantly different physical properties: water, ethanol, and glycerine. Each liquid was treated at 20 kHz with a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer coupled to a titanium sonotrode with a tip diameter of 40 mm. Two different transducer power levels were deployed: 50% and 100%, with the maximum power corresponding to a peak-to-peak amplitude of 17 μm. The cavitation structures and the flow patterns were filmed with a digital camera. To investigate the effect of distance from the ultrasound source on the cavitation intensity, acoustic emissions were measured with the cavitometer at two points: below the sonotrode and near the edge of the experimental vessel. The behaviour of the three tested liquids was very different, implying that their physical parameters played a decisive role in the establishment of the cavitation regime. Non dimensional analysis revealed that water shares the closest cavitation behaviour with liquid aluminium and can therefore be used as its physical analogue in cavitation studies; this similarity was also confirmed when comparing the measured acoustic spectra of water and liquid aluminium.