Interaction of a cavitation bubble and a nearby structure

Matevz Dular - University of Ljubljana Cavitation, a formation of small vapor bubbles inside an initially homogeneous liquid medium, can occur on different complexity scales - the simplest one being a single cavitation bubble. Yet, even here a plethora of phenomena are present. In the 60', the first recordings of the bubble collapse by a high-speed camera, revealed a formation of high-velocity jets (>100m/s) directed toward the nearby solid surface. These was associated with one of the most ubiquitous issues of cavitation – cavitation erosion, which causes failure of pumps, turbines, marine propellers and even rocket engine turbopumps. In the talk we will discuss recent developments understanding the interaction of a single cavitation bubble with i) a rigid surface, ii) a compliant structure and iii) the bubble collapse in broken symmetry conditions. The results show a promise of controlling the bubble shape and the collapse direction, which may lead to developments in engineering, chemistry and medicine.