First iterative solution of the thermal behaviour of acoustic cavitation bubbles in the uniform pressure approximation

Abstract

The thermal behaviour of a spherical gas bubble in a liquid driven by an acoustic pressure is investigated in the uniform pressure approximation by employing an iterative method to solve the energy balance equations between the gas bubble and the surrounding liquid for the temperature distribution and the gas pressure inside the bubble. It is shown that the first iterative solution leads to the first order law of the gas pressure as a polytropic power law of the bubble wall temperature and of the bubble radius, with the polytropic index given as an explicit function of the isentropic exponent of the gas. The resulting first order law of the gas pressure reduces to the classical isothermal and adiabatic laws in the appropriate limits. The first order gas pressure law is then applied to an acoustically driven cavitation bubble by solving the Rayleigh-Plesset equation. Results obtained show that the bubble wall temperature pulsations during collapse and rebound can become a few orders of magnitude higher than the bulk liquid temperature.