Design of experimental setup for investigation of cavitation bubble collapse close to a solid wall

Miloš Müller¹, Patrik Zima², Jiří Unger¹ and Martin Živný¹

¹ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Liberec, Hâlkova 6, 46117, Liberec 1, Czech Republic
milos.muller@tul.cz, jiri.unger@tul.cz, martin.zivny@tul.cz
² Department of Thermodynamics, Institute of Thermomechanics, v. v. i., Academy of Sciences, Dolejškova 5, 18200 Praha, Czech Republic
zimap©it.cas.cz

Published online: 16 April 2012

Abstract

The article describes experimental setup for investigation of the impact load from collapsing cavitation bubble on a solid wall. A vapour bubble is generated inside a cubic chamber by local heating of water inside a thin channel in a button. The bubble collapse is initiated by a piezoelectric actuator attached to the flexible wall of the chamber. A laser diode with a linear CCD sensor are used to detect the bubble position during its buoyancy-driven rise to the upper wall of the chamber. The bubble collapse impact load is measured using a PVDF piezoelectric transducer glued to the upper wall of the chamber and recorded by high-speed CCD camera illuminated by a high-power LED diode. The pressure inside the chamber is measured by the dynamic pressure transducer. All the system components are controlled and synchronized by an oscilloscope and pulse generator using the LabView software.