Interaction of two cavitation bubbles with a rigid boundary

Abstract

The motion of two cavitation bubbles near a rigid boundary is observed experimentally using a high-speed camera and compared against numerical solutions obtained using a boundary integral method. The comparisons are favourable with regard to both bubble shape history and centroid motion. The bubbles show a range of responses depending on the experimental configuration. Elongated bubbles, jets directed towards or away from the rigid boundary and bubble splitting phenomena are all observed and predicted for the given parameters. It is clear that nearby bubbles are equally as important as the presence of a rigid boundary in determining the behaviour of bubbles.