Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T21:03:55.035Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An experimental study of the forces generated by the collapse of transient cavities in water

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

I. R. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University College, Aberystwyth Present address: Hydrodynamics Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
D. H. Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University College, Aberystwyth

Abstract

The paper describes an experimental investigation of the pressures developed at the seat of collapse of cavities in water. Single transient cavities, generated by a spark discharge, are allowed to collapse on the end of a piezoelectric pressure-bar gauge which measures the variation of thrust with time. It is shown that both the peak force and duration of the cavity collapse pulse are functions of the cavity lifetime. From an estimate of the minimum radius attained by the cavity and the peak force, the peak pressure on collapse is found to be at least 10,000 atm. Streak schlieren photographs of the collapse process show that a shock wave is radiated into the water at the moment of collapse and that the cavity rebounds. At the collapse of the rebound cavities the pressures developed are comparable with those developed by the collapse of the initial cavity, and these probably contribute materially to cavitational surface damage.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1960 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chesterman, W. D. 1952 Proc. Phys. Soc. B, 65, 846.
Davies, R. M. 1956 Surveys in Mechanics: G. I. Taylor 70th Anniversary Volume (ed. by G. K. Batchelor and R. M. Davies). Article: Stress waves in Solids, pp. 7694. Cambridge University Press.
Edwards, D. H. 1958 J. Sci. Instrum. 35, 346.
Edwards, D. H. & Owen, J. D. 1957 J. Sci. Instrum. 34, 161.
Eisenberg, P. 1953 David Taylor Model Basin Rep. 842.
Ellis, A. T. 1956 Proc. Symp. ‘Cavitation in Hydrodynamics’, N.P.L., paper no. 8. London: H.M.S.O.
Ellis, A. T. 1959 Private communication.
Güth, W. 1956 Acustica, 6, 526.
Harrison, M. 1952 J. Acoust. Soc. Amer. 24, 776.
Knapp, R. T. & Hollander, A. 1948 Trans. Amer. Soc. Mech. Engrs, 70, 419.
Mellen, R. H. 1956 J. Acoust. Soc. Amer. 28, 447.
Osborne, M. F. M. 1947 Trans. Amer. Soc Mech. Engrs, 69, 253.
Rattray, M. Jun. 1951 Ph.D. thesis (Cal. Inst. of Tech.).
Ripperger, E. A. 1952 Tech. Rep. no. 13. Division of Engineering Mechanics, Stanford University.
Sutton, G. W. 1957 J. Appl. Mech. 24 340.