Numerical investigation on the liquid jet and the dynamics of the near-wall cavitation bubble under an acoustic field

The dynamics of the near-wall cavitation bubble in an acoustic field are the fundamental forms of acoustic cavitation, which has been associated with promising applications in ultrasonic cleaning, chemical engineering, and food processing. However, the potential physical mechanisms for acoustic cavitation-induced surface cleaning have not been fully elucidated. The dynamics of an ultrasonically driven near-wall cavitation bubble are numerically investigated by employing a compressible two-phase model implemented in OpenFOAM. The corresponding validation of the current model containing the acoustic field was performed by comparison with experimental and state-of-the-art theoretical results. Compared to the state without the acoustic field, the acoustic field can enhance the near-wall bubble collapse due to its stretching effect, causing higher jet velocities and shorter collapse intervals. The jet velocity in the acoustic field increases by 80.2%, and the collapse time reduces by 40.9% compared to those without an acoustic field for gamma = 1.1. In addition, the effects of the stand-off distances (gamma), acoustic pressure wave frequency (f), and initial pressure (p*) on the bubble dynamic behaviors were analyzed in depth. The results indicate that cavitation effects (e.g., pressure loads at the wall center and the maximal bubble temperature) are weakened with the increase in the frequency (f) owing to the shorter oscillation periods. Furthermore, the maximum radius of bubble expansion and the collapse time decrease with increasing f and increase with increasing p*. The bubble maximum radius reduces by 12.6% when f increases by 62.5% and increases by 20.5% when p* increases by 74%.