Based on reported experimental data, a new model for single cavitation bubble dynamics is proposed considering a supercritical water(SCW) shell surrounding the bubble. Theoretical investigations show that the SCW shell apparently slows down the oscillation of the bubble and cools the gas temperature inside the collapsing bubble. Furthermore, the model is simplified to a Rayleigh–Plesset-like equation for a thin SCW shell. The dependence of the bubble dynamics on the thickness and density of the SCW shell is studied. The results show the bubble dynamics depends on the thickness but is insensitive to the density of the SCW shell. The thicker the SCW shell is, the smaller are the wall velocity and the gas temperature in the bubble. In the authors’ opinion, the SCW shell works as a buffering agent. In collapsing, it is compressed to absorb a good deal of the work transformed into the bubble internal energy during bubble collapse so that it weakens the bubble oscillations.
