The characterization of acoustic cavitation bubbles - An overview

Acoustic cavitation, in simple terms, is the growth and collapse of preexisting microbubbles under the influence of an ultrasonic field in liquids. The cavitation bubbles can be characterized by the dynamics of oscillations and the maximum temperatures and pressures reached when they collapse. These aspects can be studied both experimentally and theoretically for a single bubble system. However, in a multibubble system, the formation of bubble streamers and clusters makes it difficult to characterize the cumulative properties of these bubbles. In this overview, some recently developed experimental procedures for the characterization of acoustic cavitation bubbles have been discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.