Wall confinement effects on the dynamics of cavitation bubbles in thin tubes

Abstract

Cavitation is a common phenomenon in nature and has numerous applications. In contrast to a cavitation bubble in a free domain, a cavitation bubble in a thin tube is restricted by the tube wall, which is expected to significantly affect bubble evolution but its mechanism is still unclear. In this study, the dynamics of a cavitation bubble in a thin circular tube is studied by numerical simulation, focusing on the confinement effects of the tube. The results show that besides affecting the size and lifetime of the bubble, the confinement effects of the tube lead to the generation of counter jets and a ring jet during the contraction process of the bubble, and the curvature of the two counter jets determines the ring jet's peak velocity. When the bubble deviates from the midpoint of the tube in the axial direction, the two sides of the bubble along the axial direction show asymmetric behaviors, which results in the bubble migrating toward the midpoint. The tube diameter, tube length, liquid viscosity, and initial bubble position, can significantly influence the degree of confinement effects, which can be characterized by the variations of several key indicators, such as bubble size, lifetime, degree of deformation, counter jet velocity, ring jet velocity, and axial migration of the bubble.