To investigate the energy partitioning up to the fourth oscillation of a millimeter-scale spherical cavitation bubble induced by laser, we used nanosecond laser pulses to generate highly spherical cavitation bubbles and shadowgraphs to measure the radius-time curve. Using the extended Gilmore model and considering the continuous condensation of the vapor in the bubble, the time evolution of the bubble radius, bubble wall velocity, and pressure in the bubble is calculated till the 4th oscillation. Using Kirkwood-Bethe hypothesis, the evolution of velocity and pressure of shock wave at the optical breakdown, the first and second collapses are calculated. The shock wave energy at the breakdown and bubble collapse is directly calculated by numerical method. We found the simulated radius-time curve fits well with experimental data for the first four oscillations. The energy partition at the breakdown is the same as that in previous studies, the ratio of shock wave energy to bubble energy is about 2:1. In the first collapse and the second collapse, the ratio of shock wave energy to bubble energy is 14.54:1 and 2.81:1 respectively. In the third and fourth collapses, the ratio is less, namely than 1.5:1 and 0.42:1 respectively. The formation mechanism of the shock wave at the collapse is analyzed. The breakdown shock wave is mainly driven by the expansion of the supercritical liquid resulting from the thermalization of the energy of the free electrons in the plasma, and the collapse shock wave is mainly driven by the compressed liquid around the bubble.

This paper aims to reveal the influence of a rigid wall with a gas entrapping hole on the characteristics of the dynamic behavior of a laser-induced bubble collapse. A high-speed camera system was used to record the oscillation process of the laser-induced bubble on a rigid wall with a gas entrapping hole. When a bubble is generated by a laser above the wall with a gas entrapping hole, the entire bubble collapse stays away from the wall or splits into two bubbles because of a radial jet induced by bubble contraction. These two distinctive collapse modes are dependent on the distance between the wall and the bubble. The focus of this study is the quantitative analysis of the jet formation, bubble migration, and oscillation period, and compared with the behavior of the bubble near a rigid wall. The results show that unlike the generation of the bubble near a rigid wall, a rigid wall with a gas entrapping hole affects the morphology of the jet and changes the direction of migration of the bubble and decreases the oscillation period. Thus, the rigid wall with a gas entrapping hole could be effective for reducing cavitation erosion on the wall surface, which is supported by our experiment results.

The objective of this paper is to reveal the influence of different surface geometric conditions on the dynamic behavior characteristics of a laser-induced bubble collapse. A high-speed camera system was used to record the oscillation process of the laser-induced bubble on plane solid walls with different roughness and a wall containing reentrant cavities full of water or gas. The focus is on the quantitative analysis of the morphological characteristics of the cavitation bubble near the solid wall under different surface forms during the first two oscillation periods. The results show that the dimensionless ratio γ, defined as the distance from the center of the bubble to the wall divided by the maximum radius of the bubble, has a great influence on the change of the cavitation shape in the direction of the vertical wall. Different surface geometries without gas in our cases have no significant effect on the collapse time of cavitation bubbles. While for the surface containing gas, the direction of movement of the bubble accompanying the microjet will greatly change during the collapse of the cavitation bubble, and the collapse time seems to be independent of the dimensionless ratio γ. These achievements shed the light for engineering to avoid the damage of the microjet caused by designing suitable surface geometry.

The objective of this paper is to observe and investigate the early evolution of the shock wave, induced by a nanosecond pulsed laser in still water. A numerical method is performed to calculate the propagation of the shock wave within 1 μs, after optical breakdown, based on the Gilmore model and the Kirkwood–Bethe hypothesis. The input parameters of the numerical method include the laser pulse duration, the size of the plasma, and the maximally extended cavitation bubble, which are measured utilizing a high time-resolved shadowgraph system. The calculation results are verified by shock wave observation experiments at the cavitation bubble expansion stage. The relative errors of the radiuses and the velocity of the shock wave front reach the maximum value of 45% at 5 ns after breakdown and decrease to less than 20% within 20 ns. The high attenuation characteristics of the shock wave after the optical breakdown are predicted by the numerical method. The quick time and space evolution of the shock wave are carefully analyzed. The normalized shock wave width is found to be independent of the laser energy and duration, and the energy partition ratio is around 2.0 using the nanosecond pulsed laser.

The objective of this paper is to reveal the attenuation characteristics of a shock wave after optical breakdown in water, with laser pulses of 12-ns duration. A high time-resolved shadowgraph method is applied to capture the temporal evolutions of the cavitation bubble wall and shock wave. The experiments are carried out on a single bubble generated far away from the free surface and the rigid walls with laser pulse energies of 22 mJ, 45 mJ, and 60 mJ. The results show that a high, time-resolved, wave front velocity of the shock wave is identified, and the maximum velocity can reach up to around 4000 m/s. An asymmetric shock wave is observed at the very start of the bubble expansion stage, and the process of the sharp attenuation of wave front velocity down to sound velocity is accomplished within 310 ns. The possible relationship of the cavitation bubble and the shock wave is discussed and a prediction model, using the maximum bubble radius and the corresponding time calculated by the Gilmore model, is proposed to calculate the location of the wave front.