Ponencia presentada en el XIX Congreso Internacional de Acústica (ICA2007), Madrid, 2-7 Sep 2007.-- PACS: 43.25.Yw.
The nonlinear self-focusing of the pressure field with onset of cavitation is experimentally and theoretically analysed in the kHz range. Self-focusing in the cavitation field has already been reported above 500 kHz and it was attributed to the non-uniformity of bubble density. In this
case, bubble density remains small, non-linearity is weak and focal distance remains much larger than the acoustic wavelength in the liquid.
In this work, inertial cavitation field radiated by a 20 kHz sonotrode-type transducer is considered. A cone like bubble structure is established. This structure is very repetitive and selfconstructs in any container when a piston like emitter is used. The acoustic field is directly evaluated by using a BR&K. hydrophone and averaged pressure waveforms are analysed. The number of chosen samples is high enough to have stable measured pressure results (including
nonlinear distortion). A self-focusing effect is observed with a focal distance comparable to the acoustic wavelength in the liquid. Models accounting for the high bubble density and strong non-linear effects are proposed. Theoretical predictions are compared to experiments and
discussed.
Peer reviewed