Cavitation produced by short pulses of ultrasound

Conference item

Experimentally determined transient cavitation thresholds in water have, in the past, exceeded theoretical predications by a factor of two or more. This discrepancy is attributed to the a priori assumption that cavitation evolves from free-bubble nuclei, a condition which is difficult to recreate experimentally. An experiment is described in which thresholds are measured at two different frequencies (1.0 and 2.25 MHz) in clean water seeded with stabilized microbubbles (Albunex®). A modified free-bubble theory is presented in which the microbubble is modeled as a gas-filled, spherical cavity surrounded by a layer of surface active material. Numerical predictions based on this model compare favorably with the measured cavitation thresholds.

Authors: Roy, R; Church, C; Calabrese, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Host title: Proceedings of 12th International Symposium on Nonlinear Acoustics
• Journal: Frontiers of Nonlinear Acoustics; 12th ISNA
• Publication date: 1990-08-31
• Acceptance date: 1990-06-01
• Keywords: SBTMR