Cavitation dynamics at microscale level.

Abstract

Cavitation in a liquid is known for its deleterious effects, namely erosion, noise and loss of performance. In a mechanical heart valve, stresses generated by cavitation could lead to catastrophic failure. These deleterious effects are directly connected to the dynamics of pre-existing microscopic nuclei in the liquid medium. To highlight this, a selective review of the dynamics of the bubbles at the microscopic levels is considered here; the various aspects of the problem are highlighted and briefly addressed; new areas of research in non-spherical and bubble cloud dynamics are then considered. The importance of the inclusion of these collective and non-uniform flow effects in the dynamics of bubbles in a realistic cavitating flow field is also elucidated.