Investigation of the collapse of bubbles after the impact of a piston on a liquid free surface

A novel technique based on the impact of a piston on a liquid confined in a vessel is described. Pressure measurements reveal that strong pressure variations (up to 100 atmospheres) with a rich content of frequencies are efficiently transmitted to the liquid. High-speed camera visualizations show that pre-existing millimetric bubbles always collapse during the first instants of the impact whereas the behavior of submillimetric bubbles depends on the features of the pressure evolution in the system. In addition to the impact velocity, the amount of gas/vapor trapped between the piston and the liquid's surface plays an important role on how pressure evolves. Only when negative pressure occurs tiny bubbles grow significantly and collapse. The violent collapse of bubbles promote turbulence and mixing at very small length-scales which renders this technique interesting to intensify processes limited by heat and mass diffusion. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2483-2495, 2017